An Aspie moment and NT silliness

Post Reply New Topic

In a parking garage: My mom and I were getting some things out of our bags in the trunk of the car, and a guy pulls up in a little white car and makes all sorts of obscure (to me) gestures through his window. I just looked at him, completely confused by his made-up sign language. He kept trying the same things over and over and got increasingly frusterated with me. Finally, he looked to his immediate left and parked the car. When he got out, he said, somewhat rudely, "I was trying to ask if you were leaving!" I said "sorry, i don't understand things like that."

Now, wouldn't it have made more sense for him to just roll down his window and use words? Especially since I didn't respond to ever-more-complicated hand gestures? Also, he could have just looked to his left and seen the easy parking spot that was there all along. People are silly...

That is really why I avoid eye contact and pretend not to notice people. You can sometimes see them trying even harder to get your attention and have a little laugh.

sounds stupid.

WOW! I have seen the SAME stupid garbage! Frankly, you have NO obligation to do anything, and HE had an obligation to be farther away. I have actually had people wait too close to my car, and I couldn't safely get out. It is CRAZY! People on the aircraft also stop right outside my seat, and I think "WHO IS THIS MORON!?!?!? WHAT is the point of my getting up in a DIFFICULT way and being able to do NOTHING if they could just move back 6 to 12 inches and allow me to get up EASIER, and move in front of them so they can EASILY slide in!?" They NEVER seem to understand the really simple concept. Am I the only one that understands two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time? Isn't there a rule in physics regarding that?

Forced with a situation such as yours, I would be tempted to look around and say "WHAT, am I on candid camera!?!?" There USED to be a show called "candid camera" in the US. They would do crazy things, or iritate people, and watch with a hidden camera. At the end, they would say their famous tagline/motto "SMILE, you're on candid camera!"! There actually WAS a situation where they had a person giving wierd signs out of her car, and another where a guy stopped on a street and gave a wierd sign to pass. The point basically poked fun at people like the guy YOU encountered.

BTW SOMETIMES if I encounter guys like that(They wait too close, or give some wierd language from far away, etc...), I will actually walk someplace else in the area and shop.

Steve

Healthiest thing to do (for your sanity) is what you did...laugh at their silliness.People are always laughing at my "misunderstanding"....turn around is fair play(I have no idea where that expression comes from,but I think it applies)

Ugh...that kind of thing is annoying. I miss signals like that all the time. Sometimes people will get annoyed as well and tell me that I was rude that I missed some signal that someone had been apparently putting off for months but I had been entirely unaware of.

I remember an incident involving my mother in law and the television. I would like to sit and read when she came home and watched television. Apparently, she was perturbed by this because in her mind you aren't supposed to read books while others watch the television while others read books because she herself cannot or never did it. But she never told me about this at the time and instead ranted to me about it months later that I was occupying the living room and preventing her from watching TV by reading my book. I had great difficulty attempting to explain I was not insulting her by reading but merely trying to enjoy her company (another problem: the idea that I do not desire to watch the television programs another person watches apparently is problematic to some people even though it is natural that persons will enjoy different types of programming).

HEHhehehe What a silly man! hehehehehe! Thank you for sharing

Yeeup, this is also what it's like in my world. People trying to communicate using gestures, metaphors - anything that's not direct and concrete - and I stand there looking at them, squinting my eyes and looking all confused... trying my DAMNEDEST to figure out what they mean... then they have the nerve to get mad! And call me obtuse (well, it's a rare person I know that would actually say, "obtuse". Mostly they say something like "God! You're slow!")! When they're the ones not being clear in the first place!

Oof sorry I really got worked up there. It's just that this is such a common occurrance for me... Before my bf understood that it was a weakness for me, it even started some fights between us! Now that he understands though, he just chuckles and shakes his head, and very rarely takes it ut on me since he knows it's not my fault and I really do try to understand the subtler elements of human communication. I just suck at it.

I do the same, .

lol, I've had moments like that so often. I've been called slow so often... When are they going to realize that what THEY are doing doesn't really make any logical sense. And the part about rolling down the window and just saying it so true, why do they go blue in the face with their funny faces and gestures until they finally decide to actually use their voice????

I know what you mean about the guy doing the sign language to ask you if you are leaving and I can understand what the correct response is now in retrospec, but I have no idea why. lol I'm going to go up to someone with tape over my mouth and try to use sign language and see if THEY can figure out what I'm up to... Even Deaf people wouldn't put up with him being rude. lol I know, cause I was in interpreter school at one point.

I like being able to laugh at myself, my dad ended up tapping me on the head yesterday, I looked across at him.. he said

"Phil, I've been calling your name for over 5 minutes, very loudly"

This example can be seen as spaced out wacko guy to some, but incredibly focused to others.

At the same time, I can laugh at the way my mum can speak to almost anyone, with no difficulty, yet be in awe of it at the same time.

Funny how our weaknesses can become our biggest strengths. (if you're wondering how socialising can be a weakness, the NEED for it prevents many people from the sort of achievement someone with that desire placed elsewhere could do)