This has been a week from hell. I started out Monday morning having to get up at 3:30 am for work. I was in a pretty good mood, went to work. I had been thinking about things with Jodi for a week and had come up with a workable plan. I was psyched to start working on things Tuesday morning and meeting with some folks at the college that afternoon. Monday night, by boss called and asked me to work an extra 24 hour shift. I told her I couldn’t because I had to pick up Jodi at 2pm and had meetings with the college. She tried her best to get someone to work, but couldn’t. The best she could do was having someone come in for me about 1pm, so I could her up. Where I was working is about an hours drive from home and maybe an hour 15 to the college. The person who relieved me, was late, he got lost. So, I was 45 minutes late picking her up. I had no way of reaching her. She has my cell number, but only had enough money to make one call, she called home. When the answering machine picked up she lost the money. She can’t think through a problem, it didn’t occur to her to try and find her brother or to even ask someone in the offices to use the phone. She didn’t have her list of phone numbers with her anyway. When I finally got there she was on the verge of a major meltdown. Seems she had had a bad day, where nothing went right for her. My being late was about all she could take. When we got home, she went upstairs to decompress. I sat down and devised a plan to help her. I made sure she had enough money for multiple calls, the phone numbers she needed and written back up plans on what to do during certain circumstances. I helped her organize her back pack so she could find what she needed when she needed it. We made check lists for morning and evening to help her remember what she needed everyday. I still haven’t managed to make it to the school to talk to them about her needs. I’m not sure what they can do, after all its college not public school. I’ve called the NC Autism Society. The lady I spoke with was great; it was so nice to have someone to talk with about everything. I decided to start a parent support group in this area, mostly for the kids. I hope to be able to introduce Jodi to some others in similar situations. I made an appointment with social security to apply for SSI for Jodi. Mostly I’m in limbo, because I need the diagnosis in writing before I can apply for any services. I keep telling myself, it’s been 18 years a few more weeks won’t make that much difference. I’ve gotten a couple of emails from people providing information, which has been helpful. I’ve read a couple of books, one helped, one wasn’t relevant to Jodi. I need a plan; I need someone to help us with a plan. We need goals and ways to obtain these goals. I also need someone to talk to about all this, someone who understands what I’m going through and how stressful all this is.