Not understanding words

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I tend to misinterput words. Like I never knew 'anymore' meant ever again. I just thought it meant like for the rest of the day or something. So whenever people told me I can't do something anymore, I would stop but the next day I'd do it again because it was a new day and I didn't know I wasn't supposed to do it again that day either or the next day. I had never looked "anymore" up in the dictionary because I had assumed what it meant.


When I was 12 I remember I kept calling this girl and her parents would tell me they don't want me calling them anymore. I thought they meant for the rest of the day. They even told my parents that too and they tell me they said they don't want me calling them anymore. So I wouldn't but the next day I would. I didn't stop calling them all the time until our phone number got blocked and I stopped because every time I called, I got a operator voice so I figured their number was broken and stopped. I learned eventually you can block phone numbers. I didn't realize they meant forever till I was 13 when I called them again from Montana and two days later the girl's father called and told my Dad they don't want me calling them anymore and Dad told me about it and I freaked out because I never called them, and I never even gave them my number and my mother explained to me they have a caller ID so every phone number shows up from whoever is calling and she asked me when I did I call them and I said never and she said did I call them yesterday and I said no and she said how about at night and I said no I called them two days ago.
I actually thought for a moment they had some sort of superpowers by knowing my every move I do and can see me in their heads of what I'm doing in my new life because they knew my number.
When my mother told me not to call them again and next time I want to call, have them do it. Then I realized they probably meant last year they didn't want me calling them again, not today not tomorrow, never but why didn't they say so. Well they did technically but I just didn't understand what 'anymore' meant.
How smart was that. The whole time I thought I did an aspie thing because I didn't understand what they were telling me but no it was because I didn't understand that one word and an aspie would have understood what they meant by "Don't call us anymore." They would have thought ever again because that's what "anymore" means. I don't know if it was just me being stupid or if this was just a personality thing or maybe something else. Maybe me being echolalic by using words I don't even understand but thinking I knew what they mean because I know how they are used. That be higher on the spectrum.

I guess this is sort of similar . . . I used to think that there was a word, "apon", which was different in meaning from "upon" in a subtle way. I thought it was kind of like "affect" and "effect"--people use them interchangeably out of ignorance and their meanings are related yet different. I thought that "apon" was more abstract, while "upon" was more concrete and definite. Such as:

Once apon a time, she sat upon a fence and called apon her brother to bring her the stones that were strewn upon the ground.

One day, I announced to my mother, "I think I've mastered the difference between apon and upon!" and she said, "apon is not a word." I was shocked because I thought I had encountered it in old books. Maybe it was a typo.

I don't so much have a problem with the meaning of individual words as I do with sentences.

When I'm at work and someone asks me something I expect it to be one of 4 different questions that I get asked often. If it is not then my brain can't work out was has been said.

Often I only make sense of one word in the whole sentence then my mind rushes through the choices of what could have been said. I've gotten really good at doing this so they don't notice except for the slowish response, but still often get caught out just staring blankely at the other person.... For a long time.

I remember I used to think appropriate meant not allowed, not okay to do because my teacher was always saying that word to us students and I never knew what that word meant and then one day I figured out what it meant. Took me awhile to learn there was inappropriate and appropriate. Reason why I figured it out wrong was because my teacher was saying "(insert name here) that is not appropriate," and "That is inappropriate." See why I figured the definition out wrong. I didn't know inappropriate was one word, I thought it was two words.

Well, I guess I can't fault you TOO much! I mean I DO remember songs where it seemed everyone sung them wrong, so I got them wrong. "My sediments axactly"(Meaning "I agree 100%", and is supposed to be "My SENTIments exactly") AND, the EVER popular "NUCULAR"(Sould be nuCLEAR(after NUCLEus)) Who would have thought that, DECADES LATER, they would brand a U.S. president as an idiot because HE said NUCULAR? HECK, look what one encyclopedia has to say about it:

http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Nucular

Still, I hope you validate them in dictionaries now. NOW, even DICTIONARIES succumb to political pressure.

Lol when i was young people would say how many times do i have to tell you, and i would respond with, three times, because i thought they meant how many times did i tell you.

Also i took time to be litteral, like when someone says ill be back in 5 mins, or wait here for a minute, that changed when i got older though.