Date with Catherine

On 31 August 2014, Chris went on a date with Catherine, his then-(fake) love interest. Accompanying the two was Catherine's friend Cousin Al, who alongside her manipulated Chris into believing he was on a date with Catherine. The conversation was released to the CWCki Forums by Cousin Al.

The date took place at an Applebee's at Charlottesville. Cousin Al claimed to be tagging along because he needed to chauffeur Catherine, as her car was in the shop. For nearly three hours, the trio engaged in a pleasant chat which covered topics such as Chris's Cub Scouts experiences, high school bullying, his legal issues, and Barb's teeth. Since the topic of marriage had previously been raised as a hypothetical, Chris was questioned about how, in a practical sense, he intended to juggle wife, children, mother, hoard and vidya as an ordinary family guy.

After lunch the trio took a brief tour of 14 Branchland Court, and ended the afternoon with a visit to the rental house.

Summary

 * Chris fails to notice Catherine waving at him when he enters the restaurant, and gets seated separately.
 * Chris gives Catie the "Three-Quarter Woman" CD and some artwork.
 * Chris tells the story of why he changed his name.
 * Chris says that he got his "kilt" at Goodwill.
 * Chris explains his gender to Al, stating that he's only "three-quarters woman" because he still has a duck.
 * Chris tells Al that he is interested in an "open relationship" with Catherine, and that they've been contemplating marriage.
 * Chris says he's trying to overcome his hostility to homosexual men in order to feel comfortable as a new member of the LGBT community.
 * Chris struggles to explain his religious beliefs, saying that everyone believes in the same god, and that God is "neutral."
 * Chris states that his house fire was caused by an extension cord looped over a door which had been abraded by the action of the door opening and closing.
 * Chris also states that one of his two cats died in the fire.
 * Chris doesn't know if his father served in World War Two or the Korean War.
 * Chris says that he was kicked out of the Cub Scouts for his failure to control his anger.
 * He also discusses the early treatment he received for his autism while he was mute.
 * Chris knows nothing about health insurance matters, or whether his wife would be covered by his plan.
 * Chris demonstrates that he doesn't understand the basics of Spanish pronunciation.
 * For Catherine's benefit, Chris plays up his British heritage, especially the links to royalty.
 * Chris states that essentially the only time he has left his house during his entire life was a weekend in 2004.
 * Chris explains how the trolls stopped him from drawing Sonichu. Catherine and Al try to persuade him to start it up again, but he is clearly uninterested.
 * Chris brags about reading an entire Wikipedia article.
 * Chris wears Bob's wedding ring in his memory.
 * Chris's duct tape wallet, inspired by Mythbusters, is falling apart.
 * We discover that Barb is estranged from nearly her entire family.
 * Chris still believes that Michael Snyder bribed the police to have him and his mother arrested on 28 October 2011. He believes he did nothing wrong, even though he has no idea what his lawyer's defense was.
 * Chris is adamant that Catie move in with he and Barb after they get married. He thinks Barb can take care of any children. Her health is improving because he is happier.
 * Chris voted for Barack Obama twice because he felt he could personally relate to him better than his opponents.
 * He thinks the trolling started because they thought his artwork was "childish."
 * Chris explains why he had to ride on the handicapped bus in high school.
 * Chris believes he started playing video games on his father's Commodore 64 at six months of age.
 * Chris also believes his high school gal-pals recently abandoned him because the trolls told them he was gay.
 * Al tells Chris he'll have to shape up if he wants to marry Catie.

Audio
Below is the combined audio file for the date, originally released in nine sections.

It begins
[Part 1 00:00]

Chris : Catherine!

Catherine : Hi! Hi sweetheart, we're sitting over here. [garbled]

Chris : Oh, I'm sorry.

Catherine : I’m sorry, we’re sitting back here. Sorry, I thought you saw me and ran off [garbled]. Why did you sit down over here?

Chris : I’m sorry, well, um…

Catherine : This is my cousin Al.

Al : Yeah, Catie, uh, her car was in the garage so I gave her a ride, so, yeah.

Catherine : Come sit down.

Chris : You got here ear-, I thought you were going to get here, like, ten minutes…

Catherine : We thought so too, but we ended up spending less time at the mechanic’s than we thought. We have to drop my car off, so he's my lift.

Al : Yeah.

Catherine : It’s nice to finally meet you.

Chris : You’re here!

Al : Yeah.

Catherine : Yup, I’m here.

Chris : I’m so glad.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m glad to meet you as well. I like your earrings, they’re very pretty.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Thank you. I like your earrings too.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh thank you. [garbled] How have you been?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’ve been doing very well, thank you.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, we got here a little earlier than I thought.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You’re acting [garbled]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh yeah, I’m fine. Yeah, I haven’t eaten anything all day, so I’m just, yeah. <font color="#009900">Catherine : Sorry, we didn’t get you anything to drink, because we didn't know what you would be drinking.

<font color="#000099">Chris : This is for you.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Is this what…? Oh my goodness, this is amazing. He, He’s made me a mix CD.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and there’s a story that goes with it, plus the printout about the details of your birthday. And the two drawings I drew for you so far.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s so amazing. Nobody’s ever done anything like this for me before. I’ll put it in my purse, so it doesn’t get hurt on the table.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well I think this date’s going pretty good so far.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I should hope so.

<font color="#000099">Chris : (to Al) Oh I’m sorry, what was your name again?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, I’m Al.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Al. It’s nice to meet you.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You can call me Big Al, but, yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK. Well, I say for us you’re a lifesaver for bringing her here.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : (to waitress) Yeah bring me a sweet tea, and do y’all have cream here?

Waitress: We have half and half, and one percent milk.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, half and half. Yeah, and bring me some half and half cream please.

Waitress: With uh, I’m sorry, what did you want to drink?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Just sweet tea.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Can we do two separate checks please?

[mumbling]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah OK, well that’s fine, I mean...

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Sorry, we did, I thought we agreed…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, we did agree, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I just…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m just making sure, I don't want to upset you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, no upset, no upset.

Introductions
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, Chris, is your name Christian or is it Christopher…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, my legal name now is Christian, but I was born Christopher. Yeah, I had, yeah, there’s a fun story behind that name change. There was a bear band over at, uh, Regency Square in Chesterfield County. Shopping center? Yeah, it was kind of about when I was ten or eleven. We went over there, my mom, my family and I did, and uh, the guy behind the bear was English, so when I told him my name was Christopher, his, he misunderstood and he called me Christian.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes it did.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cool. So that was it? You just changed your name all like that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, yeah but, yeah, but yeah, we changed my name and then had legally changed after we moved to Richmond, for prob, for probably middle school and education and all that. Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So have you ever lived anywhere outside of Virginia then, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : No. Uh, no I did uh, go to, my mom and I, we went to California one time to see my half-brother Joseph Cole Smithey. And actually, you know what, without the glasses, you look remarkably like him. He has videos on line.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Really?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, he’s a movie critic. He has a website, ColeSmithey.com.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cool.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I nearly brought it up, I'd kind of forgotten about it. [garbled]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK. You seem like you have pretty important family. It’s something you should be proud of.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, well, my father was a retired engineer from General Electric. He designed the controls for quasi motor machines, steel mills and all that. So without him, you wouldn’t have these plastic glasses.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I think they’re glass.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh. Well, I’m sorry…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Like Plexiglass, I don’t know, so…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, I’m not a glass expert.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well anyway, he helped in the progress of that. That’s pretty much all that matters there.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But you like, uh, of all the places you’ve been, you like Virginia the best then, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, pretty much, uh, I mean, yeah, I like Virginia very well. It’s my home state and everything but I’m very much looking to travel with Catherine.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, I thought it would be…Yeah, if I had the money I’d be, I’d be really excited to travel like that. If my gig at the library fell through, I’m back to uh, I’m back to square one again, I guess.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, I’m sure, uh, you know, you hang out, stick with, stick with me, kid, we’ll get you a gig [pronounced “jig”] at a library yet.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yep. So Chris, do you eat here a lot, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, not, not very often, sometimes.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I mean, I’ve been to Applebee's before, but this is… I’ve been here ages ago with a friend of mine, that's how I knew it existed, that’s why I suggested it. I haven’t been here in a really long time.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Uh, I try to remember what it was I usually like to get, the one that comes with the spinach-mushroom cap.

[phone vibrates]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Eh. You know what, I’m on a diet, but I’m just thinking like, fuck it, you know, gonna eat what I want, so…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Mind your language.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh….

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s okay, it’s okay around me.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : We’re trying to get back down to uh, the original way, so…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : “Trying” being the key word, I think.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s reasonable.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I’m just pretty outspoken, Chris, I speak my mind, you know, so…

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s fine.

[The waitress comes. Phone vibrates again.]

<font color="#000099">Chris : You have a straw for me there? Thank you. [To his date:] You know, lately when I’ve been drinking sweet tea from McDonald’s, and gettin’ the half and half in there, I feel uh, my leg[?], uh, I feel the taste of it going down, you know, I think of, I wr, I sr, I think of you and...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : If you want to order you can go ahead, I’m still looking for the moment, so...

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Can I get the turkey bacon and avocado sandwich please?

Waitress: [?] <font color="#009900">Catherine : I feel weird ordering alone.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s OK. Yeah I guess I’ll have the Clubhouse Grille.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You know what? Um… [Laughs] I think, um, do you have any appetizers or anything?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, look at the front of the menu, there’s appetizers. Oh, and anything with an apple beside it, that’s healthy good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Let’s just get, let’s get the appetizer, uh, sampler. Sure.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Sounds like a good idea.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : If you don’t know what you want, sampler’s always good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yup.

Waitress: And would you like your wings mild, barbecue, sweet and spicy, or hot?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]…so whatever you guys want is fine with me.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Um…What were the options again ma’am?

Waitress: Mild wings, barbecued, sweet and spicy, or hot.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Barbecue.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : At least you get a little bit [?]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : No, no, [mumbling between Al and Catherine]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Anyway, yeah, my van’s good to go, so I can drive you anywhere as well.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Hopefully [?] because it was a long drive. [?] The check engine light came on; it could be anything.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it could be anything. I’ve had that happen before a number of times.

Understanding the whole tomgirl thing
<font color="#009900">Catherine : I see you wore your, um, tomgirl best today.

<font color="#000099">Chris : My best? Yes. Kilt.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh yeah. Yeah, you are wearing a kilt.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Or at least kilt-patterned. It was the only thing I could find at the Goodwill there, that fit, that fit me. I think there was anudder one, but I think it was like, smaller.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah. [garbled] limited sizes.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Chris, I’m not trying to be offensive or nothin’, but what’s, what’s this whole “tomgirl” thing? I just, I just don’t understand.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh, it’s essentially where I’m uh, it’s like tomboy, where women are interested in boys’ things and high activity, I’m in, I’m into more feminine things.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, you’re like a cross-dresser then, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, I’m, yes, you can call me a tranny. I accepted that. Lesbian tomgirl transgender may-ul. So I’m three-quarters woman.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : The only difference is the, uh, is the body. Heh. [Chuckles]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. You certainly have a unique fashion sense, I’ll say that. So.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It is fairly unique.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Fairly unique, but I’m sure I could be shapened up a little more sophisticated or whatever.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : There's always room for improvement for everybody, I think.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I think so.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I dunno, I’m not in transsexual, tomgirl, tomboy, I just, yeah, I’m not into any of that, so I just didn’t know, so…

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s OK.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I’m just curious. So.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’m guessing you, you have your own girlfriend then, huh?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : He's between girlfriends.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, at the moment, yeah, I’m between girlfriends.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, don’t, if you don’t break one’s heart, uh, you gotta make sure you pick the one that makes you feel more happy.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I, I prefer not to get tied down. I just go from girl to girl really, so…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Eh. Oh boy, regular heartbreaker here. Heh heh.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, well, what can I say.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Regular heartbreaker on the road, driving the General Lee. Huh huh.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Shit. No, I try not to be too mean about it, you know, I just…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, that’s OK, we’re all reas-, we’re all reasonable adults.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I just prefer, I just prefer not to get tied down, you know? It’s like, hey, if I’m with a girl, you know, somebody cuter comes along, not serious, you know what I mean? So…

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK. Well, as long as you make it clear that it’s not serious.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, I do. I do.

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK, well that’s good.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’d hate to be treated like that. [?]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Golden Rule, you know? Treat other people like you like to be treated. So.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that as well. I like to be…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It’s the Golden Rule, do unto others.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You know it!

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes I do.

The relationship and its future
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Catie, how did, how did you and Chris meet?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh that’s right, I haven’t told you yet. Um, we met on a dating site.

<font color="#000099">Chris : OKCupid.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, OKCupid, we met. Actually it was while I was overseas.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : While I was at [?].

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you move, so you get around a lot, so the online dating thing, it usually works for you as far as…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, well, it sort of did after, well, after I moved to [?] I didn’t know anybody.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So. Well I knew the roommates, but that doesn’t really count. So. It was just sort of [?] and then you got in touch with me again when I was overseas.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You said you were scared of responding.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, because of the internet trolls and cyber-bullies. I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with them. Eh, I don’t want to get into that too much right now.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Fair enough.

<font color="#000099">Chris : You know, I responded to her, and she responded very kindly, and we kind of got to know each other. Hooked [pronounced hook-ed] up very well, hooked up emotionally and everything, right?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, for the last few weeks, and we’re finally getting to meet.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You seemed pretty excited about it; you said you were hopping all over your house.

<font color="#000099">Chris : [Laughs] Not all over, but I did jump, I did jump up and down.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah? Were you really excited about it?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Were you really concerned I wouldn’t be here?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, I was concerned at points, but I try to keep pos-, I try to be optimistic. I mean this thing has been so real so far.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : It all comes to fruition.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m real, so…

<font color="#000099">Chris : And I’m real too.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So it all works out.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes it does.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yep. So what, what are your goals, plans, whatever? You guys gonna get married or what?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, we might.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : We might do one day. It’s going pretty well so far, so...

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I think, I’m thinking we would probably be together more often, I hope.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, I mean, you were talking about wanting to get married too, so…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You said you wanted to be in the next five years or so.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, within the next five years. I mean, that, but that’s up to you, though, when you, when you feel ready to get married, I’ll be, I’ll be there by your side, at the chapel. Heh heh!

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I should hope so.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Me too.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well you said, I want my marriage to be forever.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, me too, I want permanent thing as well. And you know I am, and I’m still full supportive of who you are as well. Remember? <font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, the um…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Open relationship.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you got open relationship?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, I, yeah, I fully support her, you know, you know, as a bi, I’m sure.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, you’re OK with her being with other women?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. If that… I have other ideas…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Does that include other men too?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, well, optionally for her, uh, but, for me I would, I would definitely, I would, if I felt up to it it would be with anudder woman definitely. But, she’s expressed her interest in other women as well. I mean, I don’t want to go too much into that, it sounds a little bit embarrassing.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Chris, Chris, you love her, right?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes I do, I care about her.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, why would you be OK with her having sex with other men?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I mean, that’s a fair question.

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s a fair question, yes. It’s more like, uh, if I can’t satisfy her, if she feels lack of satisfaction, I’m, I made it very clear for her that our relationship would be honest and loyal to each other, so, as long as she, as long as she lets me know that she f-, if she feels like she needs to see somebody else, then that’s fine. I’ll let her go and uh…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So sort of like an open marriage thing where each of you can see other people?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Mm. Well, we’re not gonna marry other people…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh no…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So just like, see other people.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, just like see other people. It’s like to take a break from each other as well. Because I’ve, I’ve learned a lot from a lot of television about how, where marriages end up bad, because one cheats on the other? Yeah, but this way it’s an open relationship, so we’re being honest with each other, and I just f-, I’ve come to terms with that being a part of a hap, of a, of a healthier relationship. I mean, you know, even modernly, sometimes the couples, the married couples will sleep in separate rooms if they felt need to.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Sleep in separate rooms? Like after a fight or something, maybe, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Essentially-- if they get married and they decide,...

[Part one ended]

The relationship and its future CONTINUED
<font color="#000099">Chris : ...it’s like, they don’t, one doesn’t feel comfortable sleeping right next to the other, so they end up with separate rooms, but they still love each other and care f’ each other. In fact, it broadens the relationship better that way. It’s healthier. It gives, it gives them more room to breathe.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So that, have you had relationships like that then where you’ve been at a distance…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, no I haven’t, well, I haven’t had too many relationships, really. Um. But yeah, there was uh, one where sh-, where one, where one, there was one girl who definitely, definitely wanted me to keep my distance from her. She thought I was getting too close to her. [sigh] And that’s where I learned how to restrain, to keep my hands to myself for a while. That…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose you feel very strongly about respecting a woman’s boundaries.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yes, I do. I mean, I was kind of, I was just so excited, mm, to see you and everything…I was just, I just jumped up and hugged you like I did there.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I tried, I tried to wave to you in the entrance so you saw me.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh I’m sorry, I was, um, that’s part of my, where my eyes wander in other directions, that’s the autism. Autistic people typically tend to have trouble making eye contact. Eh, but for me, it’s kind of like, yeah, I have to, my eyes wander and then I have to regain my grounds in my head and, you know, just try to reestablish eye contact as quickly as possible.

Autism, LGBT, and God
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So you’re autistic then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : High functioning autistic. Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So what’s, what’s that like, you have trouble making eye contact?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well that’s one thing. It’s also with uh, communication skills. I did a whole LittleBigPlanet seven-part, well six-part plus bonus, animation talk about autism and my perspective, so…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What? I don’t even know what that is.

<font color="#000099">Chris : LittleBigPlanet, it’s a PlayStation 3 game.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And then there’s LittleBigPlanet 2 which that’s, where it gets, it gets more into you’re able to animate. Yeah, you create your own custom levels and, within them, in LittleBigPlanet 2 and so on, you get to create your own mini-movies.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So it’s like a video game then.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK. Cool.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And then, and then you upload them to the, uh, internet, from the PlayStation Network you can also pretty much videotape record them.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Sorry, my hair is…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh yeah, no problem.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s OK.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…

<font color="#000099">Chris : I w-, I wanted to tell ya, I wanted to tell you this in person but, I really love your, I really like your red hair, the way it is.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Thank you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : It makes, it makes me think of strawberry jam. It makes me wanna jam.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’ve never heard that one before. That’s an interesting descriptor. I’ve never actually considered that one before.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Well you’re wearing a red shirt, so at least your shirt and hair match…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I like, I like wearing, I like wearing bold colors.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, that’s pretty much where I’m trying to reestablish, being more comfortable being LGBT—Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans. And wh, their pride parades and everything.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You said now that you’re more comfortable, so is that like a recent thing with you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it came, yeah, I pr-, yeah I became, I became more comfortable with it recently being part of it, and let my, and let myself become part of it and supporting the equal rights, equal rights. I signed up with the Human Rights Campaign, and bought a few things off their store.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You said, oh I didn’t know you actually bought something. I thought you were just thinking about it.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, yeah, pur-, yeah, purchased them, purchased them like, um, I think, sometime between last Thursday or Saturday. It takes about, it takes about up to ten days, uh…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I feel like I’ll get back to them maybe early next week.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Probably when I was traveling then.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I picked a lovely, yeah, I picked out a lovely shirt for you too. I showed you a picture?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You did. I hope it fits.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I hope it fits too, you know, it’s XL versus two X. That’s uh, one X. Heh. I saw the number and, I saw the two X and I thought and remembering it later one X. It turns out that’s XL. I hope it does fit.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It probably will.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you said the LBGT, what is it, LGBT?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, LGBT.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : LGB, whatever.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Lesbian, gay, trans…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Lesbian, gay, trans, yeah OK. So you said that’s just something you’ve became comfortable with? So was…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Become, become comfortable being part of. Yeah, I had, I pretty much had my mental backdrops with uh, the homosexual males, especially. Especially since the majority of the trolls and cyber-bullies were homosexual men.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So basically these gay guys were all bullying you, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, a lot of them were bullying me, pestering me, sending me these lewd…images, imagery, and...

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?] getting a lot of that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I mean you mentioned it, but you didn’t really talk with me about that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I haven’t really gone to, into depth about all of that, but…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I figured there was somebody in Ohio talking about, the other day.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, that was like, uh, essentially somebody in, that’s the higher force about, uh, yeah everybody, everybody has names for god, Emanuel, Buddha, whatever. But essentially it’s the one same elemental force, probably that guy up in the stars that Matt Groening best describes as that star cluster in Futurama that Bender talks to.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What guy?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Heh. Yeah. “Are you God?” “Possibly. I go by many names.”

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you’re saying something about Ohio? God lives in Ohio then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : No no no, higher force.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : He's above us, is like in the stars, so that’s why, that’s pretty much what I consider we call “neutrally” as. Like, like, like yeah, I guess it’s the one, you know, I guess God would definitely be more neutral and more accepting since everybody knows that word.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I even made like a bit about that when I got, when I’m watching this, I let all the uh, bullies and trolls at one point. I talked about the higher force and messing with our heads and, I did bring up that he is, that that is God essentially, I would think. I mean, I, I mean, somebody who looks like, I mean, people portray God as like being human, pretty much. But then, there’s that joke in that episode of South Park, the Millennium episode where the man looked like this cluster of animals. He had a hippopotamus head! But yeah I…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You watch South Park?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don't watch South Park. You watch a lot of television, though, don’t you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. “TV! We talk TV! Do you talk some TV?” Heh heh.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don’t know what that’s from.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh that’s from the Transformers movie. The original animated.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I haven’t seen it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You sound like you’re a big film and cinema and TV fan.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah. My fam, my family raised me on music and musicals and television and whatnot, so, and then pretty much, uh, I was inside a lot and by myself, uh, I really wasn’t as sociable as I’ve grown up to be much more better at.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, so I pretty much had time for watching movies and television.

The house fire
<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, I did mean to ask, how is your uh, I remember you were having some trouble with your landlord in the rental house.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, my, Debbie our uh, Debbie our uh…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : How’d that go for you? Did you manage to get all that figured out?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Claims, yeah our claims agent made the call. Yeah we got our lease extended until the end of November.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh you got that in stone now then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, we’re good.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, that’s good.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And also they’re gonna start working on the renovation of our house, uh…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Are you guys like remodeling then or something?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh no, we had a house fire last January.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That sucks, man, hey, I’m sorry to hear, dude.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Thank you.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That sucks.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Thank you, Al.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : No problem, man. But what, what happened with the fire?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, we…

[the food arrives]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh boy! [laughs]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Wow, now that’s a sampler!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s what I call a sam--, you want anything, Chris, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, we’ll see how I feel after I have my sandwich.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Thank you very much.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, no problem. Wow.

Waitress: Do you guys need anything else right now?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I think we’ll be OK.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Alright, thank you very much.

<font color="#000099">Chris : You want ketchup for your fries?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Um, yes please, I’ll start in on them a bit later. I’ll be alright.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’ll just put it back here then. Uh, so anyway, the house fire, it was electrical. We had just, I had just plugged in a coffee brewer, Kruger, Keurig brand? Yeah. Yeah anyway, the extension, there was one plugged in extension cord that was going into the bathroom, the [paper?] was outside on the top of the, top of the dresser in the hallway. Pretty much the way the situation was, was it was in there, the door to the bathroom was j-, was kept open? So I, and uh, cord was shorter than I thought and I ended up having to loop it over the door, and that part just where, it’s hard to get up to where finally get there, it starts, and that’s pretty much how the fire started on the top.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don't think you ever told me why you have a coffee maker in the bathroom.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh, yeah, No, no, it’s not in the bathroom, it’s out-, it was outside the bathroom.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Anyway, that’s how the fire started, and we all got out safe.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don't know why you'd have that plugged in there. That seems like a really odd place for a coffee maker.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah I always put the coffee maker in the kitchen or something.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Well, we do have a coffee, we do have another coffee maker now and that’s in the kitchen. And I can brew tea in it as well.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I mean [?] aren’t designed to do that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Well anyway, we all got out safe ‘cept for one of our two cats, which that was a shame. We buried that cat in the backyard, uh, after the cleaners found it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So your cat died then? Or one of them?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, one cat. We have another, we have, the other cat was safe. She got out safe. Both of our dogs. We have beagles. Purebred beagles. Their names are Snoopy and Clover. Yeah, you know…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did you adopt them from the shelter?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh no, we went way out of our way to another part of Virginia to pretty much go to this puppy farm. Yeah. [baby voice] There were like three little beagles and they were all so cute!

<font color="#009900">Catherine : A puppy farm’s not good then.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh well…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Don’t they just like breed them in boxes?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, no, they were, they were let out a lot of… Yeah, they had them out-, they had the three remaining puppies outside in a small wire gate. They were just [] little puppies, but I’m sure, I’m sure it’s [?]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I always heard that puppy farms were a bad thing, [?] all the time and [?] I’ve heard, it’s possible that I’m wrong, but I’ve heard that…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You went to a puppy farm? Where it’s just that grow puppies to sell them or something?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, like that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about it.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah well OK well, I know a little, a little about puppy farms, especially also this place, that’s where Snoopy came from, the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. Uh, not our Snoopy, Peanuts’ Snoopy.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : My parents, they got a dog called Snoopy.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and then, I’ll tell you a story behind Clover. There was, in generation two, of My Little Pony, of My Little Pony Tales, there was a pony named Clover. I pretty much liked her among the main cast during that, during that season. I felt like I could relate to her, so… plus also…

[clapping in the background]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, somebody’s having a birthday.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, I’d say that.

[birthday noise continues]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Chris, you’re saying that your house fire got started by some appliance, that Keurig…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, the Keurig coffee brewer was plugged into the extension cord plugged into the bathroom wall, and the fire happened at the arch where it was over the door frame, over the door.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, I was gonna say, if it was the, the coffee maker, I would have sued the hell out of them, those bastards.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, but, yeah but we thought for, for a while that’s what we’d sue the coffee brewer, but the… Unfortunately, it turned out to be the extension cord after the fire inspector confirmed that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : My uncle, my uncle Tom Ashby, who married my, uh, aunt who was actually, uh, my blood aunt, uh, so you know, uncle, in-law, sort of, but anyway, Tom Ashby is a retired fire inspector. And they live over in Chesterfield County now. They recently moved out of the house, moved into like a condominium.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : But why was it plugged in there? Your coffee maker was plugged into the extension cord, it's an electrical thing [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, we didn’t have one that was closer.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Closer?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well maybe how…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?] house?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : When was your house built? Do you know?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh] It was built before I was born, so, before my parents got married, so before 1980.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So I’m saying a lot of those older houses, there’s not enough exten-, like, outlets, so they gotta run extension cords to get to places. Was that it, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, pretty much. Of course also, the nearest plug socket that we had was behind a really big, where the coffee maker was, the closest one there was behind a really big dresser. And the house was cluttered, it had lots of stuff. My father, as old as he was, he died September of 2011, two midnights and a quarter hour later, after he turned 84.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Uh huh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : He had heart problems.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That must have sucked.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. And we still had all these narrow hallways, everything was cluttered. And my mom made uh, has impulsive issues, goes to Goodwill sometimes and didn’t [?] much either, but you know, that is like, God is telling us, “Hey Barbara,” – that’s my mother’s name, Barbara—“Uh, hey Barbara, I’ll make it easier for ya. There you go –fire, get out of the house. You go save what you are able to and I’ll take care of…”

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wait, who said that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, my mom, my mom came up with this, it’s like, God was telling her, “Hey Barbara, I’ll make it easy for ya.” Yeah, cause she was concerned about all the clutter as well and didn’t know where to put it.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Is that, is that how she’s coping?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, that’s one way she’s coping. She’s coping in a lot of ways in her head. She’s, I mean, she can tell you a lot, a lot of stories and interesting facts.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So your mother thinks that God was telling her to move out of the house? So he, God burnt it then? Is that what she believes, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s, that’s, that’s one idea she has. Another theory that my mother ha-, another belief my mother has about God is that uh, the energy inside us is God. So it’s like, you know, millions of gods around the world.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you, you believe in some sort of higher being then. So your mother, so are you a pretty religious guy, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well I, uh, I'm fairly religious. I just, uh, I just, I just take all the good about from, I learn at least a little bit about every aspect of religion.

[Part two ended]

The house fire CONTINUED
<font color="#000099">Chris : And uh, just, and I took it, and then my father said, “Everyone believes in the same God.” So, I was thinking to live with that and I leave it with you know, the one higher force and just…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Your dad said that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Everybody…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Other people believe in different gods.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah well it’s, yeah, but it’s essentially the one same god.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you’re saying it’s like different versions of the same god, different incarnations of the same god?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, pretty m-, yeah, let’s go with that, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Fair enough.

Bob and Chris's early years
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Your father sounds like a very worldly man. Did he travel a lot?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Mm. [Chris is eating.] That’s a tasty sandwich. Yes he, he has traveled the world some. He was stationed in Seoul, Korea during World War…Two, in the Signal Corps.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : World War Two?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, civil, [stumbles and slurs]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : The Korean War happened after World War Two.

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK, maybe the Korean War, I don’t know. Anyway, he was, but anyway, he was stationed in Seoul, Korea.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And what did he do in the army?

<font color="#000099">Chris : He was, he was in the Signal Corps. He uh, helped maintain the satellite feeds and uh, all the mechanics over there.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Like the communications and stuff like that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So how long was he in the army? When did he get out?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh. [sigh] I’m not sure I remember. I have in a keepsake box he kept some of his, he kept his Boy Scout badges that he earned. I’m not sure from when he was, from when he was a boy, or… He was a Scout troop leader at one point in his life. His Scout, his Scout troop, his group, his Scout troop made a wallet for him. And he wanted to be sh-, he wanted to be, he wanted to be buried with that wallet but he wasn’t really buried. He’s in a mausoleum up on the uh, Monticello Memory Gardens, up on the hill on the way up to the Monticello.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Were you um, were you ever in the Boy Scouts? I know…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, I was in the Wolf Cub Scouts uh, for a while in my life but they booted me out.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : For what would they do that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I think it’s probably something from my autism, when I was being, I was being, like I was being, I was being outbursting and loud for something, or misbehave-, I don’t remember.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So they kicked you out because you’re autistic?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I think so.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did you, did you ever get in touch with them? That’s illegal.

<font color="#000099">Chris : No, uh, I don’t even remember who the Scout troop leader was.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don’t suppose that matters, does it. You can actually sue…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it was, yeah, it was like, I was like five, six, seven.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Five, six, so that would be twenty-five years ago?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose the statutes have passed with that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I'da said today that would be illegal. You could sue ‘em, get a lot of money.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : For that sort of thing.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, I might, I don’t know, if I remember it.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well I don’t, I don’t expect you can any more. The statute of limitations would be…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I, too much, too much time has gone by. I wouldn’t even worry about it.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s sad. Was your, was your dad upset?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I expect if he was a scoutmaster, that he would've been…

<font color="#000099">Chris : I think my, I think both my parents were upset. Uh, they were quite upset when the, uh, disputes with Greene County with the uh, yeah, the way they received my reactions in the fourth grade I was in, pinned me down on the floor and they wanted to record my screams. That was abuse right there. But anyway…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What happened?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Eh, Teachers and counselors, they pinned me down quote-unquote, they wanted to audio record my screaming.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : For what??

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh] I don’t know. That was, eh…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Where was that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : That was Nathanael Greene Elementary, in…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : The fourth grade?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You would have been, you would have been nine?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, uh, I guess, I don’t know. I don’t remember, it was so long ago.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What made that happen?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I don’t remember. I think they, the t-, yeah, from what they, my parents told me they, the tea-, they did not understand children with autism, way back then either.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well that was a long time ago.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, but anyway, they wanted to put me in a mental institution but between court settlements my family decided to move, that’s why they moved to Chesterfield County in ’92.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : To get away from that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, plus...

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did they have a good autism program?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and a better education, between Providence Middle and Manchester High.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So did that have... I don't think I ever asked. Did they have like, um, special education or an autism program?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I was pretty much mainstreamed.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you didn’t have any extra…classes?

<font color="#000099">Chris : No, actually, I have uh, no, not, no, no extra classes, uh, well, unless you want to count coping skills.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s kind of a special ed class.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose that’s really…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So did you have any like special counselors or anybody who could help you in high school?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Anyone special that you saw?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Anyone specialized with kids or any-

<font color="#000099">Chris : They um, I believe they offered them to me, but I don’t think I ever really sought counseling like that, that much. I mean I probably did, but…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well if it was available to you, it was your right to use it whenever you liked.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

Metabolism and long distance relationships
[waitress shows up]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Sorry didn’t mean to stop you.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah no problem. The food is great.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Your sandwich good?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, the taste of it, of this so far... It is good.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Just nibbling.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, me too. Just nibbling.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Are you nervous?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, a little bit. I, I g-, I’m a bit of a soda jerk, I drink a lot of soda throughout my life, so I got a shaky leg also.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s one thing my mother complains about, when it shakes the house also.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Your shaky leg shakes the whole house?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, when I’m standing, uh, not as much when I’m sitting down.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Is that like your old house or your rental house?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, well, everywhere. It’s just whenever, I mean, I’m shaking right now here.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So it’s, you’re just like, your leg fidgets a little bit, shakes like that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s actually, with people who fidget like that, they burn more calories. So that’s like, a forty percent less chance of them becoming obese as they get older.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well I did not know that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Me neither.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : This means you have a high metabolism. It’s good.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s very good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yep.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well now I feel weird because I don't [? - relating to not fidgeting]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Mm. Well don’t worry about it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Maybe live with me long enough, you’ll pick up on the habit. Huh! Just kidding.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don’t know about living together.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It’s like I said my dad’s very traditional.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well that’s another thing, another obstacle to relations, sometimes if you travel a lot, so there’s long distance so you can’t see each other, that’s the challenge, so.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, that hurt. But I mean, I told you that I have long distance before and it did work.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It takes effort.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It takes a lot of effort.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And I am willing to put in the effort.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well I live at Culpeper, so it’s not that far away.

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s not that far away. Plus you can always move in, when me and my mom felt, when you felt comfortable, and then, yeah, we’ll find you a library here that’ll hire ya.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yep.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I mean, ‘cause up in Culpeper it’s just the one library.

Health concerns
<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, it is the one, that’s why I was so happy to get the internship, but then it didn’t pan out. So how is your art business going?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, fair. I’ve got, yeah, fair, I currently have, like, over $120 in my PayPal account.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s good, you can work on your mother’s teeth that way.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well a little bit, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well does she need them?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, she needs them. But it’s like, she needs six of them and it feels like I’ve got to raise the whole six hundred, so that would take a while.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So is your mom, she needs new teeth, you’re saying?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, she needs like, uh, she’s got cavities in six of her teeth.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : How old is your mother?

<font color="#000099">Chris : She’s 72. She was, yeah, she was born in 1941.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s not young. Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So is her health good then? Is she OK?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, I’d say her health is fair. She uh, doesn’t get as much energy in a day, so she, as she used to, so she ends up, uhhh, resting, resting more often.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. But you’re saying it’s six new teeth would be what, six hundred bucks?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah well…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s cheap.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, well actually it’s, actually it’s for, ehh, it’s, it’s a lot more than six hundred. It’s like, in order for me to be able to help with that I gotta give her a hundred dollars per tooth. And as she takes care of her, as then she, she is able to take care of the remainder after that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Dental, dental work is very expensive. My father has bad teeth actually, and he got a couple of those worked on a few years back, and it was like five thousand dollars for just two of his teeth.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeesh.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Do you guys have health insurance then, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I guess we do have health in-, I guess, yeah we have insurance. I’ve just never really understood it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Ah, so you do have health insurance. That’s good. What sort of insurance do you have? Like where do you get it from? Do you buy it yourself?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, well I know we have, uh, Medicaid and uh, and the Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Medicare?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So if you get, so if you marry Catie would she be on your insurance plan, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, my mother would be able to, be able to answer that question better.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Alright.

<font color="#000099">Chris : So I don’t know.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I guess you don’t…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Chris…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I mean, I know, I know how that works for mine.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : But if I married someone they’d go on mine, so…I guess that’s just something I feel I have to learn.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. At least, at least it’s beneficial mutually. I mean, especially if we end up on our health insurance that way.

Chris the artist
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yep. So Chris, you’re basically like a freelance artist then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Mm. [he’s eating]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I never did ask, how long you’ve been doing that. Like, how long have you been making your living from that?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Is that something you decided to do after college, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Mm. Yeah, essentially after college. I mean, yeah I did, uh, I originally did drawing the comic pages and whatnot for fun and then the trolls got to me and I just had writer’s block from really devastating emotions for years.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Comic pages? Are you like, you had a comic book or something?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Sonichu.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, you didn’t tell me very much about that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What’s Ssssonichu?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Electric hedgehog Pokemon.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, so it’s like a Pokemon thing.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. And then he looks like, and then it looks like Sonic. Uh, his girlfriend, Rosechu, it’s like, looks a lot like Amy.

[the waitress shows up]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I think we’re doing good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, we’re doing great!

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, we’re doing good, thank you.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But yeah, yeah, so they’re like, Pokemon things, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah. I mean…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Don’t you need permission to distribute that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, no, since they’re parody, since they’re parody-like characters, it’s OK, I mean I have not gotten any complaints from Nintendo or Sega or anybody.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose they can’t…As long as you’re careful they can’t give a cease and desist to everybody.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah I mean, I mean I’ve been working on Sonichu since uh, 2000. I’ve uploaded a few images onto my PokeSite, and then I started working on my comic book, the first one, in 2004. And then I made like, ten books total. Well ten and a half, I got part way through the eleventh one. That’s about when…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Would you ever pick it up again?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I probably would.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Because you mentioned wanting to draw, in the email you sent me about how coming across your evil twin or something.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Sorry, coming across…?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Your evil twin.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh. Um, well that was uh, that’s an idea I just had as a fresh idea.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Fresh idea?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, well it’s essentially it’s where I meet up with, meet up with Reldnahc. That’s his name. It’s essentially “Chandler” spelled backwards.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And he’s like what, your evil twin or something, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Just essentially everything opposite me, because he would be totally gay.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So what you’re saying: He is opposite, so he would be gay, but aren’t you a tomgirl now? So wouldn’t he be a…tomboy or…? I don’t know… How would that--

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I… [stress sigh] I know it’s complicated when you think about it. But yeah. Essentially just consider this: I have, I feel like I have a woman’s, a female soul in me. And the female soul is lesbian. And since I’m a, since I’m a male physically…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK, so basically you’re a lesbian trapped in the body of a man.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK. I can understand that. Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

Chris fails at Spanish
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Hey Chris, you want any of this? I mean I’m not, I’m on a diet, but these barbeque wings are really good and then that’s a cheese stick, now that’s a quesaduhdah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Dilla. [pronounced “Deela.”]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Huh?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Deela.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Dee-ah. OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Quesadilla [Kay-sah-deela.]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Isn’t the double-l…?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Quesadilla [pronounced correctly].

<font color="#009900">Catherine : The double-l, is that a y-sound?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Quesa-dillah, quesadeela, whatever.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it’s tomato, tomahto, potato, potahto. Let’s call the whole thing off!

Chris's Heritage
<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK. Yeah but come on Chris, get... get, get some, get some grub, man. [trying to push food onto Chris]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah I mean, I’ve got grub right here.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Alright.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I mean we’ve been talking.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Catie, you want anything?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I may actually pinch your cheese straw.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cheese straw! [Chris laughs]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Stop it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It’s a cheese stick!

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Stop calling me foreigner. I don’t like that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Friggin’ British people, Chris.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [mumbles] You call me all sorts of things.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : (sneers) British.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You’re lucky I like you, alright!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s debatable, but we’ll stick with that for now.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Mm. You’re fair that you’re one of the few males that I’m, that I’m feeling comfortable around, especially with, especially with Catherine here.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Well I…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah anyway, I take, I take a bit of offense to the British comment because I’m part-British.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I think that you shouldn't pretend you've ever been to Britain.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah I haven’t been to Britain.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Because I’m not British at all.

Waitress: You want any dipping sauce for that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. You're not British. I’ll be good there.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Alright.

<font color="#000099">Chris : You’re just like a born-in-British kind of thing, or sort, something like that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I apologize Chris, I didn’t know. I didn’t know you were British, I didn’t mean to offend you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh, well that’s OK, I mean.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I take it back.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’m a lot of mixed breeds, between my family, French, English, British, some, I think some Ir-, I think some Irish, maybe a little bit of Italian. I’m not one hundred percent. That's, that would, my mother knows better. And for, she’s, cause her...

[Part three ended]

Chris's Heritage CONTINUED
<font color="#000099">Chris : ...family came along the, came along shortly after the Mayflower because Daniel Weston borrowed for, bartered for the Mayflower but that uh, didn’t get aboard at the time.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cool.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Have you ever done research, like gone back and look at the passenger roster? That sort of thing is available to the public.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Hm.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You go to em, libraries and online databases that will find. Because in the old days you would have to sign a, uh, a passenger list, [<font color="#000099">Chris : “Yeah.”] if you were traveling, so you know, there’s all the names of all the people that have ever come over.

<font color="#000099">Chris : The [bay?] that boarded the Mayflower.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, there’s a hundred and twenty-odd people that boarded the Mayflower.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, but my mother, but my mother, she did the research between library books and she feels, she is very positive that Daniel was not aboard the Mayflower. Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Back to square one. You'll have to find it eventually.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Just like I’m still trying to find a link between Richard Will-, Richard, Richard Weston, which preceded Daniel Weston, first Earl of Portland, to Mary Boleyn.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, that would be um, related to the king.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well, sister-in-law to the king. He did have an affair with Mary but it’s not... It’s all very convoluted.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. (to Catherine) You gotta go to the bathroom, or…?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, I need the ladies.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Alright.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : And can I, can I trust you here with my handbag? Can you just mind it for a few minutes

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I won’t touch it, no problem.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, I know you won't touch it. Oh never mind, I thought I had [?].

Just the boys
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, okay. (to Chris) So how long have you and Catie been talking?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Essentially last mid-July.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Or, yeah, I think it was last mid-July. We had been talking a few weeks on end of July to mid-August. I kept track of the first twenty days of communication between OKCupid initially, and then we tacked, and then we talked through Skype. Via instant messenger, plus the one time, uh, two times, we, she was able to borrow a microphone for her friend. I believe Sarah was her name?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Ah, I don’t know, I don’t keep track of her friends.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well at least I paid attention to the two names that were mentioned. I’m having a hard time remembering the bride’s, the bride’s name now. That’s the other name she mentioned, the bride. I think it started with a B or an I.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : [completely bored] Yeah. Eh, you seem like a pretty cool guy. Yeah. I just, if you’re gonna marry Catie, I mean, you’re marrying into the whole family, so it’s just, I figured I’d get it out of the way and meet you now, so. Catie called me up and she needed a ride, so I figured hey, so I gave her a ride here.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I appreciate that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And yes, you can rest assured my family is pretty much wholesome.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I mean, my fa-, um, my father was 52 upon my conception. I’m living with two senior citizens, well, one and a ha-, one and then one later became a senior citizen, my mother.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : For all my life, so…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you never, you never moved out of home then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah never really, yeah never really moved out of home. Um, one weekend I went to an anime convention and stayed at the hotel by myself. That was kind of fun.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Really, when was that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh, that was a few years ago. Ah, Anime Mid-Atlantic.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Anime Mid-Atlantic?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So anime is like the Pokey-mon… and the comic characters.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, anime is Japan animation.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Ah, cool.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Anything that was originally from Japan of animation. And of course that includes Pokemon. Also includes shows like Dragon Ball Z. And uh, let me see if I can remember a few more…um, Sonic X, um…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But you went to the convention all by yourself?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Alright. So what’d you do there? Did you like, meet other people in anime, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I sort of, I mingled a little bit, um, but I mostly kept to myself, really. Because I wasn’t, cause I wasn’t really as extroverted as I am now.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

How the trolls defeated Sonichu
<font color="#009900">Catherine : [returning] What were you boys talking about?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So where was the, where was the convention that…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, it was over in Kroger Hotel in Midlothian.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, outside Richmond.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you spent the whole weekend there yourself?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That must have been pretty cool.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. It was fun. (to Catherine) I was, I was telling him about how I went to the anime convention.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, he was saying he went to some anime convention a couple years back outside Richmond. He said, um, I was, he was like, “Hey did you ever,” he was like, he never left his parents’ house, moved out from his parents’, so like, and then he mentioned a convention he went to, so, that seems like it’d be pretty cool.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, finally I’m trying to remember the name of the bride of the wedding you went to.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Nanette.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Nanette.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK. Yeah. I thought so at the time. I’m sorry, I started, thought it started with an I or a B. That’s N Nanette.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, it’s kind of an old name from my family.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and then I remembered Sarah you borrowed the microphone from.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : (to waitress) Can I get a refill on the diet Mountain Dew?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : (to waitress) Um, can I get herbal tea as well please? Thank you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And I’ve been talking a lot! Huh huh! S’why I haven’t been eatin’.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Ah, no problem Chris.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s alright, we’re trying to learn about each other.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. The whole point of this is so that we get to know each other. So.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But yeah, uh, what were you saying?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I lost the train of my thought. I was talking about the anime convention.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Um, OK, so what have you been doing since, you’ve been doing artistry, artwork, stuff like that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, well, I recently decided to do art commissions for money so I made listings on eBay. Plus also, free drawing of Sonichu and Rosechu artwork that prolly sell as well. I had, I mean, the fan club started as early as 2004. And then the trolls, [Catherine says something] Yes, it was an online club thing, so errybody around the world can become a member of the fan club. And then the trolls joined the fan club and really knocked me for a loop. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t tell the difference between troll/bad person or fan/good person, and so I just opted, so I just opted out.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So basically like, you had this cool fan club and you had this comic book, and then there were a bunch of assholes that basically ran down the whole, basically were assholes.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, they even hacked into my web, hacked into my web sites, and then put up all over the place the…lewd…male pictures.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Like what do you mean, lewd male pictures? Like, gay guys and stuff?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and uh, dick imagery as well.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, that…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Why would they do that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well it was like he just said, they were assholes. And they uh, essentially for the sake of hatred as, that was anudder term I learned.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So they were gonna make fun of whatev…Sunny-chew? Sonichu, whatever.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Sonichu.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Sonichu. Sonichu.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And the creator. They found, they considered me to be weak and I was, I was mentally more weak back then but I’ve gr-, I’ve grown more immune and tougher, so.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You're good at spotting them now.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, more or less. I, uh, have uh, I’ve grown an immunity to their bad words now.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Sort of. It still hurts me a little bit. A little bit. But it’s like, I just brush it off.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So where, where do these people come from? What are they like? All around the world?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, but I think most of them are like, within the United States, like within California. And I…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Why California? How did you gain that information?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, why, why California?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, they, they uh, have initiated, they have made it known to me at some points that some of them were from California. And then also there’s some over in uh, [sigh] I forget which part of Europe. Um, it’s like um, it’s something Great Britain? Uh, I think, uh, India as well, I’m not sure. Singapore…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : How are you getting all that information?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [sigh]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : How’d you find out where they were at, yeah?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Fan mail.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Fan mail?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So wait, they were sending you, they, they were sending you fan mail even though they didn’t like you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, yeah that was, they definitely did not like me. They sent me lewd drawings.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So it was like fake fan mail then.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, some of it was fake, and…actually of a lo-, actually a lot more of it was positive mail, fan mail. I kept ‘em, I kept ‘em in binders. The fan mail.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Is it at your house?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. I have most of ‘em. Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So are you still doing Sonichu then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Your comic book thing, your…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, more or less. I’m getting, trying to get back into the groove.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I think you should do it, honestly. It seems like it makes you happy.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah it did make me happy, but then I lost, with the trolls coming I lost track of the storyline and what I wanted to do, and then I ended up, as I drew furder I end up falling into writer’s block. And that’s, oh, and anudder thing about autistic people—we’re kind of ritualistic as in, as in we tend to fall into habits of what we normally do.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : If you got into the habit of drawing the comic you’d probably be able to…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah it’s like, it’s like, it’s like riding a bicycle. Um, uh, yeah, one time I was able to. It mostly depends on my mood and how I’m feeling. Yeah one time I did manage to get one book drawn in a month. But most of the time it took me more than a month.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Do you get distracted or something?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah kinda, and anudder thing about autistic people, the attention deficit disorder is part of it, as well.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I thought they were two different things.

<font color="#000099">Chris : What’s that?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I thought they were two different things.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, well there’s a l- there’s a lot of things linked to autism, yeah, OCD, ADD…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I suppose one person could have two different disorders at the same time.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Or conditions, whatever you call them.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Chris, there are a lot of artists out there in the world, and even some of the greatest artists out there who have published, have millions of fans—they still get criticism. Because with every, all art, there’s gonna be someone who doesn’t like it. And you know what, those artists, they can just ignore the criticism…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : …and they keep on publishing. Because even if some people don’t like it, there are gonna be people that do like it.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, well, I mean I w- I would have appreciated your input dere, like, five years ago.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well the best thing you can do is just get back on your horse.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : And show them that it’s not gonna bother you, that they can’t keep you down.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That would drive them crazy, and it would get you doing what you love.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, if there’s something that you can do, with these bullies or whatever can’t affect, and you keep doing it, that will drive them nuts, it will piss ‘em off.

<font color="#000099">Chris : [meekly] Yeah. Well, I should, well, especially right now I feel like I’m getting the more positive help.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, inspiration.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Positive help is a good thing.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. You’re my muse.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m your muse? I like that.

Chris and learning
<font color="#DF0000">Al : You should draw her into the comic.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Ugh.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That would be cool.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Make her like a super-hero or something like a jet backpack and like a Batman suit or something.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Ugh.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I would love that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : This is like anime and Pokemon, right, like Batman or Superman aren’t really anime.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You could do a parody of Batman or Superman.

<font color="#000099">Chris : You know there was actually a, there was a DC Universe/Spiderman cross-over, I learned. Where Spiderman wanted to learn, he wanted to learnt to, come into the Justice League, but Batman would not hear of it.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’d love to be a comic character.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I think that would be fun.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’ve always wanted to be like a cartoon character or something, like, I don’t know, I don’t know why. But I love cartoons, and I’d love to be a cartoon character.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I don’t really read…I’ve read some of the original Marv-, Marvel comics when I was a kid, you know like Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, stuff like that. So. Not so much anymore.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I got into, I got into DC and Marvel original TV cartoon shows.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah. So do you, I guess you don’t read a lot then, do you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh I do, I do read, I do read some like, I read that Wikipedia article, the whole thing: “History of Lesbianism in America.”

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you read Wikipedia a lot then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, no, not, I haven’t read it often, but I mean, I felt in the mutual interest here. I felt compel-, I felt compelled to, and it definitely was very interesting. I shared what I learned from the page with everyone.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, you did learn from it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So you basically, when you become interested in something, you look up information about it and learn about it?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Mm.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Learn about as much as you can?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, would you say most of what you’ve learned through your life comes from yourself, do you educate yourself? Or would you say it comes from school and college?

[something about the restaurant is bothering Chris]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Something spicy? You sound like you’re really hot. So…oh, the light.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, the light.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I guess I’m far enough down that it doesn’t matter.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. [stress sigh]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But now you were saying, like, do you learn more from studying things yourself or do you learn more from school?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I think I think I have learned from studying things myself. And taking the good from life from the bad from what I learned everywhere, and errywhere else.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Taking from the bathroom? What?

<font color="#000099">Chris : No, taking the good from the bad.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, I thought you said bathroom. I just, I didn’t understand you there.

<font color="#000099">Chris : [sigh] That’s the perception right, right there. Individual perceptions.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK. But you said taking the good from the bad? What were you going to say?

<font color="#000099">Chris : You take the good from the bad and then you put it in your own common sense and ideals, and then you figure out what’s best from all, from all perspectives there.

The eBay business
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So. So do you, you said you get paid for these comic commissions, right?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, there’s, I’m doing drawings…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Art commissions, whatever.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. I’m doing it on eBay. I’m charging like, twenty bucks for an autographed photo cause I’m so famous. And I do fifty dollars for a commission I draw fully, like with a background and foreground characters and everything.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Sweet.

<font color="#000099">Chris : But I don’t color it. And then for a hundred I will color it in. And then for two hundred, I’ll give a certificate of authenticity hand pers-, personally hand draw-, hand written, and then I laminate the piece and frame it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So have you been getting a lot of business, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, I’ve done a good amount, a fair amount of business. [Chris is still bothered by heat] I feel like I wanna...

[Part four ended]

The eBay business CONTINUED
<font color="#000099">Chris : ...say dang that lamp! Huh huh!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It’s pretty hot? But…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Let’s see about the air conditioner.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Yeah. It is a little bit warm over here, yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, do you do art just because you enjoy it, or is it just like a money thing? You know what I mean?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, well I do it for mostly for my uh, for when I feel inspired and my, kinda, and my…and help me feel a little better, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So, is it passion, or is it more a business?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I’d definitely say it’s more of a passion. When I, it’s like, when I get to the drawing stuff and I set my mind to it, I definitely get in the zone. But also, you know, I’ve had a good deal of repeat customers. I give them a small upgrade on the drawings and you know, the second time around they go, “I paid fifty dollars for a black-and-white, I’ll buy a color.” Or for the uh, color, I’ll add lamination and the certificate. No frame.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Chris, you said you’ve got a pretty decent amount of business. Are they…fans of your comic book?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Yeah, it was, I was really happy in the beginning, like uh, last, like, last July, throughout, throughout the month. I started, I think I started like the end of June, when I put all that onto the Ebay. Yeah, it was really pouring in, and maybe over $2000 a month.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s pretty good money.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. But then, but then uh, the [?] went down, and interest kind of slowed down a little bit, so I didn’t make, I’m not making as much this month. Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Why do you think the interest went down?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, essentially because everybody got a piece of me now, between a photo or some hand drawing.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And then for an international cus-, customers, you know, outside the US, ‘cause they have to pay a little more, I’ll give them a single character drawing, where I just draw a character.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh that’s nice of you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Or you know, I could, I could also draw like some, I could draw like headshots of their friends or celebrities. Like, this one time I just drew of, this was recent, I drew a friend of this guy who looked like uh, he was bald and had a big beard and everything, he…[the waitress arrives]

Dieting
Waitress: Can I take these plates for you?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : I think I’m, I think I’m good too.

Waitress: You sure?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I feel sure.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Chris, you want the uh, quesadill-, quesadilla with barbeque?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Nah, I don’t think so.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Come on.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I feel pretty, I’m not gonna make me…I’ve been dieting myself, and I feel full. Well at least I feel, you know…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : (to waitress) Thank you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : …satis-, I feel, I feel satisfied.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I mean, it’s not growling and I’m not, and I feel like I’m nearing full, so I don’t want to go overboard.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh. Yeah, that’s a good thing.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I mean…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you care a lot about staying in shape.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, a little bit, yeah. I take a walk daily.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh that’s good.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah at least like um, half an hour or so.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s good. So do you walk about your um, shop over here?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. I take, I take laps around the Target. It’s air conditioned in there and uh, so it’s a better neutral place for any weather.

The Apology Letters and Rings
<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s good. Did you get those letters sent that you told me about?

<font color="#000099">Chris : What letters? Oh, oh, yes, yes, the letters to…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : [clears throat] Excuse me.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Have you gotten any response?

<font color="#000099">Chris : No, I haven’t gotten a response yet.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s a shame.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Letters?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uhhh, I was banned from like, two stores. Uh, well…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What happened?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well in Fashion Square, right over here…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, the mall?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. They uh, I made loud outbursts and plus it was, it was like the early days of my Sweetheart Search, in early 2000 [?]. They thought I was soliciting. But I was not.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What were you doing?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, yeah, I was, I was trying to meet people the best way I could. Before I was still very shy and paranoid. I had this, I had this idea in my head about every woman being paired up, and I didn’t know how to tell a difference aside from a wedding ring. Oh this is my father’s wedding ring, by the way.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, I didn’t know that.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. I’ve been hanging onto it since he passed away. The reason I had it in like the, 20th anniversary Optimus Prime figure behind the grill, but since the fire and uh, he had a little bit of melting, it was like, what if it had left this, what if it had gotten worse and I couldn’t have gotten the ring out?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and this is my class ring. The class of 2000. And that’s my birthstone, amethyst.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s pretty!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s pretty badass.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did you know, this is uh, in the old days, you know, like way back in the 50s, if the boy and the girl were going out, the boy would give the girl his class ring. That’s how they, that’s how people knew that they were together, because she was wearing his class ring.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, that’s right back in the 50s and 60s.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I mean, my dad was really cheesy, and it was in the 60s that my dad did it for my mum. [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, I’ll tell you what, give me some time and, maybe I’ll let, maybe I will let you wear it.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, that would be sweet!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That would be so sweet. I’ve never had jewelry from a boy before.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Really, you never had jewelry before?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : No, not from a boy. I mean, I’ve had my own, but…I’ve hardly got anything on at the moment at all.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Just my earrings, and [?].

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Too damn hot to wear jewelry, really. [belches]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, right, that sounded like [?]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh yeah, I’m fine. I just got a big stomach.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I have a [sweet?] too, you know, you know the big reason why men belch is because, because they’re stressed. I know exactly [?], yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : What happens is, I just belch so loud, and I’ll [?], it just sounds as if I’m throwing up, I’m not.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Quite bad.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’ve never heard that stress leads to belching.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, people have different reactions to stress. So. So Chris, how, how old are you exactly?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’m 32 years old. Pisces, February 24th.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK. So you, after you said you went to Manchester…

[waitress asks about dessert]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Um, I’m fine about dessert, and you?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Ah, I’m, I’m pretty good, yeah. Chris, do you want anything for…I’ll get you something if you want.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, no that’s OK, um...I guess you could bring another sweet tea.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Thank you.

[waitress brings checks]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Thank you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : You know, I think we’re OK on that.

Duct Tape Wallet and Math Skills
[pause as everyone deals with the checks]

<font color="#000099">Chris : (to Catherine) I like that. I think that must be like a 3DS case.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, no, it’s a wallet.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh, it is a wallet.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?] Yeah, I got it from uh…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it looks big.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don’t even remember where I got it from, probably a friend’s house. <font color="#DF0000">Al : (to Chris) Did you build that wallet yourself?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, inspired by the Mythbusters. [clears throat] Excuse me. Uh, yeah, Mythbusters, uh, in the very first duct tape special, Adam shows off his wallet made out of duct tape, and that’s what inspired me to do it. I based it off of a wallet I was using when I…. And…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Does anyone have any singles? I haven’t got any singles with me.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Ah, I can loan you a couple. Damn, Chris, how long have you had that wallet?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh my goodness, that’s falling apart!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Eh, well, it’s, it’s infinitely…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : [interrupts with a question for Catherine about the bill] How much do you need? Three?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I think I’m gonna leave a tip, so it’s three, four…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Three bucks…I got, um…I got some quarters.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Me too.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh no, wait, I found a dollar.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, OK. That’ll work.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That works.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Eh, I’m trying to figure out my tip now. One-three-six…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : [interrupting] So what do you usually tip? Is it 10%, 15, 20%?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, yeah, I figure fifteen, I figure fifteen percent. I can do percentages in my head fairly quick.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : [mumbling about the tip math]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [mumbling]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. I’d say 68 cents…well…well, round up by a nickle. So 73 cents and then uh, the dollar, that total brings it up to six bucks.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s anudder good thing, that’s one good thing about autism, we uh, do fairly well in our mental [cognitives?] Uh, I’m fairly skilled…math was one of my favorite subjects.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you did pretty good in that in school, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s pretty impressive then. I mean, ‘cause you said, you’re what, high-functioning autistic?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you did pretty good in math in your regular classes, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. I’ve uh, yeah I’ve got-, I’ve gotten like As and Bs a long, a long time. I’ve been on, I was on Honor Roll throughout middle and high school. Made the Dean’s List at PVCC.

A Futile Discussion About Getting a Job
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you went to college at Piedmont, Piedmont Virginia Community College, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s right. [?]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So do you have a degree from there, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah. Yeah. I got a degr-, I got a degree and a certif-, and a certificate for Computer Aided Drafting and Design.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So do you get a job from that then, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [pause] Jobs were scarce. <font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So you just never really found one in that area, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Plus I’m on uh, plus I’m on income, so, if I got, so if I got a job I’d have to make like up to $900 a month.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So wait a second, you said you’re on income? What, what do you mean?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Sssocial Security.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh! So you’re on welfare, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, because of my…autism.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Knock in the head, that’s the old brain problem, there.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Well that sucks, man, so.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh well.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : My understanding that, what, what type of Social Security, is it Social Security Supplemental Disability income, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : That sounds, that sounds right.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Well I actually worked with a guy at Wal-Mart one time that was getting that as well.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I don’t know if he had autism or something, but it may have been something similar to that. And he worked there, and the thing is, is he got, he could only work a certain number of hours a week. I believe it was like 25. Because with that you can work a certain number of hours, but as long as your income from the job doesn’t go above a certain amount…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Right.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : …you still keep all the Social Security income.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, plus I had, yeah, I had so many inputs here and there and everywhere, I just, I just uh, couldn’t really get into the….I, I, I tried applying a number of times, but I never got a call back. <font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s just the way it is, I mean.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : After my, my mom and I, we get moved back into our house, I’ll, I’ll look for, I’ll go applying…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What stops you doing it now?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I mean, you don’t do anything aside from the, what were you saying, going for walks and the comics…

Respect for the Elderly
<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, I’m take-, I’m taking care of my mom. Also. Yeah, ‘cause uh, she needs, ‘cause we need each other, essentially. Um, well she needs me to uh, help, help keep her, help do things for her sometimes…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : (to waitress) Here you go.

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK, yeah I got the uh, tip. Bring me back six dollars, ‘cause I had, only had a twenty.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Chris, if your mother’s uh, disabled then, uh, shouldn’t she, shouldn’t she be put in like a…elderly home, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [interrupting] Oh, oh no, we’re not, we’re not doing that. They treat, they treat you very badly in there. She, she would, she, she, she would never want me to put her into a home, and I would not do that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You’re just very independent, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Fairly, yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. My, my uh, grandparents were like that too, they just never, on my dad’s side of the family, they just never wanted to be in a home. So.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, I understand that. You just want to stay in your own home as much as possible.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well still, though, it can be dangerous. Like at the end, their eyesight started failing, and their bones, my grandmother, she slipped and she got, she broke her, her pelvis. Towards when she was, when she was older. So, it’s just, you gotta look out for your mom’s health, you know what I mean?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I had, yeah I definitely have lots of respect for my elder. Respect for the elderly.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So she can’t even be without you for four hours. [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah well, well she can be without me, she does, she can can do OK by herself, but it’s like the uh, few things, and I’ll never know when they’re gonna come up. But yeah, I w-, but yeah, after we get moved back in, ‘cause if we, if we, if the house has, if the house could get up and to be finished any time, they’re actually getting started on that now.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So the rebuild’s going really well.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s, yes, it is progressing.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, there’s gonna be a place for you and Catie to live, then.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yes. It’s a big house, uh, about three rooms wide, two rooms…thick?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Do you, do you know the square footage?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, no, not really. I’d say, the house uh, that we’re renting right now is about two-thirds the size of the original house. And plus we have like uh, back porch, but uh, that’s still cluttered. My mom and I, we really need to unload a lot of stuff, so we’re gonna be sorting through everything we got boxed up and…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, what’s…I mean, if you need to unload it, what’s stopping you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, it’s pretty much uh, my mother’s input, ‘cause…lots, there’s lot, she has a lot more stuff than I do.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, she doesn’t want to get rid of it.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, for some uh, reasons or whatever. It’s like, she’s got, she would, she’s got like, mountains of fabric, ‘cause she thinks she’s gonna get back into sewing and whatever.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : She could make some money doing that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : She could, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : If she started a business with that, she could make some money.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah but she’s still like, lack of energy. She only gets like, a certain number of hours of energy per day.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : But if she’s doing her own business, she could uh…

<font color="#000099">Chris : [sigh]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Do it at her leisure, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : …only do it when she knows she can, so if she says, you know I need this, you can say I’m afraid I can’t do it.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I just, I wanna make sure if Catie’s gonna be moving in with you, I’m concerned….We’re blood. She’s my family.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So I wanna be sure she has a safe and clean location to live.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I, I, I would like her to be, to move in with me, if she feels comfortable with that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Someday, maybe.

Waitress: Thank you.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Thanks very much.

Barb and her family
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Chris, you said your mother needs to be taken care of, I mean, are you the only one? I mean, isn’t there anybody else in the family who could take care of her for you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [sighs] Errybody else on the Weston side of the family is...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Right.

Barb and her family CONTINUED
<font color="#000099">Chris : ...pretty much close minded to her nowadays.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Are they assholes?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, essentially, I would say, I would say that, yea. They uh, yea she grew up in Red Oak. She was born in Red Oak, Virginia and uh, within the Weston family there they spread rumors about her. Sort of things like, she’s a slut. That sort of thing.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What would make them say that?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, why would they… talking bad about someone in your own family, that’s just like harming yourself.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s just bullying.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I would say either their assholes or they’re just stressed with their own lives. If they would do it when they were younger I would definitely say “assholes”.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Was it just misconceptions or rumors?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yea, I would say definitely misconceptions and rumors. Uh, even, even Cole who was born of my mother there uh…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh yea Cole, that guy you mentioned earlier.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah… uh anyway, he’s got a chip on his shoulder against my mother as well because uh, of things that he’s been told about her from things, from the relatives, and his father in law, even his birth father.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wait. Cole, your mother is his mother too, right?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s mother and son.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And he doesn’t want to take care of her when she’s sick?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yea, he’s like, he just doesn’t wanna do a thing with her.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Wow.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What’s he been told? What are these people telling him?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [sigh] Yeah, well my mother, she could tell it better than I could.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I mean, did he tell you at all? It seems like something brothers would talk about.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, uh, well actually all of my half-siblings are all distant, cuz I was child when they were all adults.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : There’s an age gap there.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Big age gap.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So that makes it harder to communicate with them then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, even more difficult when they don’t even give you the information themselves and you have to try to look it up on the interne- through whatever and then you, then you send em a letter or email multiple times and then they don’t respond.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So wait, you didn’t even have their contact info, you had to look it up online?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I had to look up Cole’s information online, uh, from my father, he had two children Allen and Carol. Allen is a, a alloth- an optomologlist [meaning ophthalmologist] in Chestfield County. David Allen Chandler, doctor. Anyway he lives over in ??ville. My father knew that, he did. umm… as for Carol, he, we have no idea where the Hell she is and Allen would be able to know where she is definitely and Allen still doesn’t want to do a thing with me or his mother in law here.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, how long has it been since you’ve been in touch with him?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, my, well, my father and I before he died uhh, earlier summer two thousand ‘leven, we tried to find him at his house, where he’s living at but they were out. They might have gone on vacation uhh we had an idea, we had an idea ?without any notice? but we had uuuh had like a couple of gifts for Allen and his family cuz he got married, has a daughter named Savannah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, so anyway, uh so we left the presents with their next door neighbor.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you drove to their house then or wherever they live?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Just drove there and they weren’t there?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What did you get for them, what presents?

<font color="#000099">Chris : My father had like this stained glass bird he wanted to give that too Sava- yea the gifts were for Savannah really. Yeah he wanted to give her the stained glass bird and for a little while I collected Squinkies.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Squinkies? What’s a Squinkie?

<font color="#000099">Chris : They’re the cute little animal-type plastic squishy things. You can put ‘em on pencils or pencils and pegs and they’re like, they're like little various characters...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh like, those little erasers you put on the end of pencils sometimes.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, yeah, yeah, but these are not erasers.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, they’re like decorative.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I never even heard of that ????????

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah they came out like within the past decade.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cool.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I guess, yeah I would’ve been overseas then.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So there’s no… your father’s side of the family there’s no… on your mother’s side of the family there’s nobody either?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Nobody on my father’s side of the family, they’re all old as well. And pretty much my father, he has siblings but they’re all half siblings as well and he never really got close to them either, they, they never really got close to him.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you and your mom really don’t have much of a support network.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, kind of up a creek with a wing and a prayer… [pause] I didn’t want to say without a paddle, because we did sort of have a paddle so that’s why “with a wing and a prayer.”

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That… that sucks man.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah. That’s terrible. I mean, we haven’t always been close but at least we have family.

The Game Place incident
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So what are your long term plans, I mean, where do you see you and Catie five years from now?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, hopefully uh, more organized and all that and uh… definitely would like to be married.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So are you gonna be living with Catie then or are three going to be living with your mom?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah I think, uh, I think uh, i think we’re uh, all going to be living together. Yeah cuz I don’t want to leave my mother behind. I’m sure all of us will be living together.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So do you plan on doing this Sonichu thing, comic book thing or continue with the art?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I’m thinking I am going to continue with the art.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So have you thought about getting a job at all though? I know the economy's bad right now.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I’m gonna apply… I’m apply for a part time job after uh, yeah after we move back in, uh but I guess part time, I guess I might be flexible. I might try beforehand but I'm still not certain about that when the house will be completed.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And we have to move everything back to the house - we’re renting a storage unit as well.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You don’t have like a, like with the applications for job checks or anything, one of the things that can make it harder is if you have a felony on your record. I mean, you don’t have any crimes on your record, do you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [sigh] No, not really, but the trolls...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You never got arrested or anything like that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, my mother and I we have been arrested… upon a trap set by, set by the guy who pressed charges against us.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So was he one of the trolls then, or one of these internet bullies?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah I say he was among the trolls I say everybody and the police around here are amongst the trolls as well. I mean, it’s not confirmed but my mother and I we end up speculating there.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So was it these...

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you and your mom both think...

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s the impression we get from, from, when we were talks with the police while we were under their custody at the time, or when we were going to report something, like we reported the trawwwllls and their ? have been going on and nothing got done.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : There’s not always a lot they can do about that. What made you think, like apart from that, what made you conclude that trolls were in the police?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, what made you think that the cops were trolls?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah what had you...

<font color="#000099">Chris : Essentially it was within the attitude and the signal- the body language and subtle signal.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : The attitude and body language, like how so, what specific?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Were the police not very professional then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah they were not, they were not very professional, they’re more brutish - more like shoot first, or arrest first, beat ‘em up, ask questions later.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You got beat up by the police?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah we both did that time.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So were you physically injured? You could’ve sued the police if they abused you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah we were completely injured, my mother was too.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What happened? Did you break a bone, did you need stitches?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh... no bones were broken, but they broke my glasses.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well that’s still damage to property, it’s not physical injury, but, so did they pay for your glasses then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh [sigh] no, we, my mother and I we were already going through our own stress from the court dates and everything. Fortunately we got settled, we got stuck with a felony charge, mother and I, but that’ll be cleared up next June or July.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Next June, so do you have a court date?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I don’t think there is a court date, I’m not sure.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : When was this? What happened?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, when did this happen?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah this was October 2011. [pause] Michael Snyder, the Game Hobby place I had been banned from there cuz Michael hated my guts April 2008 and uh he was definitely a total asshole.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : How was he an asshole to you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : He was just very mean, uncaring, he wouldn’t even give service when I went in one time before that, that just, uh ask him OK everything's past everything and he’s like “no” he’s like “no” and he was gonna call the police on evidence so I left.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So wait a second, you went into the store one time and you talked with him and what happened?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I tried to reason with him. Like I was like uh [sigh] I had it audio recorded and I uploaded it for the reason I had at the time...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wait a second, why would you record it and then why would you upload it? Where did you upload it to?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, because I, because I [pause] well it was because, you know, so I could prove Michael was as mean as he was. Had he had not been mean I wouldn’t have uploaded it at all, but I mean it was audio when I had a digital camera in my pocket and it recorded the audio.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And when was this?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh this was like um, two thousand nine, or ten.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK so it was a few years ago.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So he was just basically an asshole?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah he was just, it was like every time it was just like every time I got half way through sentence he was just like “nope.” rah blah blah blah “nope” blah blah blah “nope.” Just a minute, “nope, nope, nope.” bipbipbibpbip “nope” -

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Chris, that was in two-thousand and ten then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Nine or ten I don’t remember exactly.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And you said you got arrested in 2011.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah because it was a trap essentially. My mother and I, we were in that part of town and we saw a sign on a store window that said “under new management” so I figured Michael was gone, right, but no he was the new manager of the place now and he had the police on call, ready right there at the people, at the Staple’s store to, to be like witnesses and everything and mom and I we tried to make our escape but they, but nobody would let us and then like, Snyder paid the police, told “beat the crap outta ‘em and arrest ‘em!” something like that.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : He bribed the police?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Why would he do that? Why would he hate you so much?

[pause for obnoxious birthday song in background]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Why would he do that? He sounds like a really cruel guy?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, he was really cruel.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : How’d you find out he bribed the cops, did somebody tell you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, well, pretty much my mom figured it out, essentially and you know it’s like com- it’s like common sense to put two and two together and he figured that he would profit from me and my mother, he thought we were rich but we were not so rich. We had- it was a lot of money we had, but Mr. C, my father had left us and it paid the court and lawyer fees.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So what were you charged with then? I mean, it sounds like you didn’t really do anything.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeaaa we were charged with trespassing.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well you mentioned a felony too. It doesn’t sound like trespassing would just be a felony.

<font color="#000099">Chris : There was also uh… There were...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : You said you tried to make an escape, did you run from the cops?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh a bit… yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wow.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, they were blocking, they were try to block our path out but we made it out but then they cornered us at the nearby court building in the back parking lot, behind the building.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Chris, I’ve had to deal with cops myself, and I’ve gotta say, you never look forward to dealing with the cops but they’re still the police. You gotta treat them with respect. Even if you don’t agree with them you still have to show respect.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah… that’s…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It’s just important to do.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, that’s still the process I’m trying to get to. ? uh giving the good from the bad from and I’m still seeing bad in a lot of ‘em because with the bribery and everything they can be corrupted. Cuz you don’t know what’s going on in their heads.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You realize that if you find actual evidence, like if you could actually put a case together for that you can sue them and you can...

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, if they slip up and you get evidence that they’ve been bribed or that they maltreated you...

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You could get the charges dropped and it’ll be off your record completely and it’ll be like it never happened.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah but... yeah…but that hardly… My mother thought that at one point but we we’re so stressed and everything we couldn’t really act on it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It can be hard to find evidence of that, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It can be hard, but if this is all true, if this is really what happened then goodness knows what else has been happening.

<font color="#000099">Chris : well... yeah, yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you could be able to help a lot of people if you did that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah if the police around here are acting like that you might not be the only victim. They could be doing that to other people.

[Part six ended]

The Game Place incident CONTINUED
<font color="#DF0000">Al : What happened then, did you get a felony on your record, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, ‘cause uh, there was a little bit of a…yeah, I mean we, there was a bit of a fight on the way out and…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : A bit of a fight?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, yeah, something like, and uh, Snyder, he pretended to be like hit by our van, but he did not, but the van was stood still. He like hit the bumper and faked falls. Twice.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wait, he what?

<font color="#000099">Chris : He stood in front of our van. He did not want us to leave. And he pretended to be like, he got hit by the van. He kicked the bumper and faked his falls.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So he walked…so the van was not moving. It was, he walked up to the van and then like, fell back? <font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, well, he stood there like uh, shoot, what was that uh, the, the general who, Stonewall Jackson!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : The Confederate general.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Like stood there like [stupid voice] Stonewall Jackson! Yeah. And then, like I said he…I’m not going to repeat myself, I’ve repeated enough times. He hit the bumper and fell.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. But yeah, so basically he filed a bunch of charges against you then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And the cops helped him out?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did you have a lawyer?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, we had Rob Bell.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don’t know him.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So how…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah he…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Who’s he?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh yeah, he’s uh, he’s Rob Bell. And he’s an attorney. Uh, I forget what he specializes in. His office is in the downtown mall area. Uh, he ran, he ran for Congress. He’s a congressman among there. Um, but the way he handled our case, he was kind of like being, he was kind of like chicken about it. I mean, it’s like, yeah it was like…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : How so?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Like, he was, he, he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t assert us very well in the way he presented everything. Uh…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Like what was his, what was his argument? What was his defense?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh…I don’t remember all the details. Um, um, but mom, but yeah my mom’s had more observation of Rob Bell than I would, than I was able to.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It, it sounds like you were innocent, [<font color="#000099">Chris : “Yeah.”] so were you found innocent then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, well we, well, he advised us and we went along with it to plead guilty. Yeah and then, and then all the char-, and then, uh, pushed us to multiple trials. We uh, had the, uh, shoot…the… First you go, you check in with?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Parole officer?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh yeah, but indirect. We did not have to have a parole officer all the time so we just checked in with the person who was helping us there, being the parole officer.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It’s usually a parole officer who [?].

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So how long did you spend in jail then before the trial?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, we spent overnight in jail from like, seven a.m. to like, three to six…I mean, seven, seven to nine, it felt like it was from seven p.m. to the following, uh, three to six…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But it was overnight. So it was like one day?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It was overnight, [?].

<font color="#000099">Chris : It was like overnight, but I was really upset. I was, I mean, when you upset an autistic person it’s just really bad.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So were they not, did they not know you were autistic then, or did they not care, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : They did not care. And, and I…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : How did you know that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh. Uh, I couldn’t really think of it, I was just too darn upset. They were arrest-, they were arresting my mother and all I could do was just scream.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?] your fault.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, they, I didn’t, I ended up try-, I could not find peace while sitting in that jail cell, and not knowing where my, where my mother was and everything. Nobody would talk to me in there, and for hours, while I was stuck in there, so stuck in there, because there was no clock anywhere in sight. I actually thought it was like 7:27 pm on Friday, October 27th.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That sounds really terrible.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Did you sleep at all?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh] After we got back home late, after we got back home then, in the morning, yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you stayed up all night?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah. Yeah, I was just worried, worried, worried.

Chris, Catherine, and Barb, united in holy matrimony
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So did you have anybody who helped you, or…? I mean you said you don’t keep in touch with your family, so who…?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did you have anybody in your corner? Anybody helping you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, well, yeah most, well there was one, yes, that’s my uh, Aunt Harriet and Uncle Tom. My mom talks to her weekly nowadays, at least every Saturday.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And uh, that’s pretty much it, uh, they haven’t uh, they haven’t invited us over to their new condominium.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oy, where do they live?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, they’re living in Richmond, in Chesterfield County there.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, that’s not that too far away.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So maybe, maybe what, could your mother maybe she could move in with them…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, we don’t…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And you and Catie could live together. Would that work, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, no, because uh, we do not know their address and they have not invited us over. All we have from Harriet and Tom now is their phone number.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Haven’t you even been by for a visit? How long have they been living there? You say it’s new, so…

<font color="#000099">Chris : I think it’s been like uh, one, two, three years, at best.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK. So…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, but anyway, but anyway…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m just not sure how I feel about…I understand you’re close to your mother, but I don’t know if I want to be married and also doing that. Does that make sense?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I feel that makes sense but uh, I don’t think…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Because it’s not an usual arrangement.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Uh don’t, I don’t think you have to worry about that.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You don’t?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah I don’t think so.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You mean you don’t think it would be a problem?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I don’t think it would be a problem.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So like, I mean like, what if we one day had children? There would be children in the house.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, we would be in the big, we would be back in the bigger house long before then.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh yeah yeah, no, I’m talking about after that, after you’re back in your, your real house. Like what if we have children, there’s children running about? Would your mother be able to handle them?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, she would be able to handle them. She’s been able to handle the dog-, our little puppies, our dogs.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Dogs aren’t children, though.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah I mean, you said that she was having only a limited amount of energy every day. Are you sure that she could handle a couple new kids?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh] Yeah, I’m sure she could handle children.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Has she, have you talked about, is this something you’ve talked about?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, we, yeah, we talked about it before.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What did she say about that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, she said, she shed she’ll be, she’ll be able to help out.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : And…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah she’s just, I think uh, what really eased her, ease her to be able to stay awake longer is motiv-, is the motivation and the drive and she’s been feeling a lot better because I’ve been more happy lately, cause of you.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So she, she knows about Catie then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yes.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What, what all does she know about me?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, I showed her your photographs. Um, I told her you were part Scottish and Italian. Told her a bit, told her a bit about your father and stepfather. And uh, about your mom. I, uh, just went into that detail there and [?] and everything. I’m not, I’m not gonna go furder because I don’t want to upset you.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK yeah, cause I’m not sure. I mean eventually she will find out that…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I just don’t know how, it’s like, it’s like [?] about tomgirl/lesbian thing.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So it’s sort of…in due time, I think.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, in due time. Everything in due time, but I did tell her a lot of things that we shared, talked about.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s good. And she’s, she’s happy with that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah she’s happy and she’s…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I know for a bit she was a little bit concerned because she’s, she’s afraid I was going to take you away.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, no no no, I don’t think so. Yeah I think, if anything, she would, well, hm. I don’t know yet, but I def-, I definitely would not leave her behind if we moved into a new house. <font color="#009900">Catherine : OK. You must be really attached to her.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah but, it’s not like, it’s not like Bates Motel or anything like that.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What’s Bates Motel? Oh, that…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What the hell is Bates Motel?!

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Psycho.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : What?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Psycho.

<font color="#000099">Chris : The movie Psycho.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, like the Alfred Hitchcock.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Yeah and they also made a TV series based off that, of before his mother died.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh, I haven’t seen the show.

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s on Netflix. Check it out sometime.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m scared of everything, so.

Obama, Anna, and the trolls
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. Uh Chris, you said earlier that I was one of the males that you get along with well?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, it’s like I don’t get along with most males around the world originally, and I have a little like a few male acquaintances, friends, that I get along friendly well with, and I have to respect the president. Uh, and I guess pretty much to say, my mind, my mind is fixed so far. I voted for Obama both times.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So why’d you vote for Obama? What made you decide?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I, well, it’s like you know initially the first time he ran against uh, sh-, I forget his name.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : McCain.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, McKinney. Yeah, I would have, and I would have definitely voted for Sarah Palin if she had stayed in the running. But anyway, uh, I felt, I’ve watched both a-, both A&E biographies of McCain and uh, Obama, and with the way he was uh, raised and everything, in uh, poor countries and at distant from his parents and whatnot, I f-, I kind of felt like um, with my mental stabil-, with my mental problems and whatnot, I felt like I could similarly relate to him? I felt more related, felt more relatable to him in that sense than McCain was. As he was the, uh, prisoner in that other country he insisted, he did not want to be released early. He wanted to go out with the r-, with as s-, at the same time as errybody else. Uh I mean, that is, that is admirable [he pronounces this word all wrong].

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So why’d you vote for him the second time then? Did your uh, did your reasons change, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Or was it just the same thing?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’d say it was pretty much just the same.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You felt you related to him more.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So is that like, is that like a continuing thing for you, like you have to feel like you have to relate to an authority figure?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, not necessarily all the time, but I felt like uh, if I wanted, if I felt like I wanted to make sure that I had good reason to decide from the change and having a first black president. Aside from that, cause if I had done that, if I had done it on just that alone, that would have been racist.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose that makes sense.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So Chr-, who else do you hang out with? I mean, aside from males, girls, do you have any friends?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I don’t have too many friends. Uh, I have, I have gal-, I have two gal-pals, uh, female friends, uh, yeah one of which lives in Utah. That’s Anna. And the other one lives around here with her boyfriend Philip, that’s Kim. Uh, but we don’t hang out much. Well we do talk like over instant mess-, over instant message for, and emails.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s good.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Plus I have uh, Anna’s phone number, so I call Anna [all] the time.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?] talking to you as a friend, like?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I feel like, I feel like it is important for me to have friends, but because of, because uh, uh, yes. I’m…yeah, but, yeah, for the past, since 2007 I’ve been, and definit-, kind of since two thou-, since after the trolls came in, it definitely has gone downhill for me. I became more paranoid of people now.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah. And you were a little bit paranoid of me for a bit.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. And I feel better.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, [?] real now.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK, good. I didn’t, I didn’t want to upset you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, you’re not upsetting me. Uh, in fact, in fact you’re doing the opposite. The only thing that’s upsetting me right now is recounting the uh, some of the past times.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m sorry.

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s OK. I mean, it’s, I mean as long as I can find a punch line to go out good with, that pops up random in my head.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well if it pops up you let me know.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?] to me.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, so Chris, how did all these trolls or internet bull-, how did it all start?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [sigh] Because I uploaded whatever I felt like onto the internet, essentially Sonichu and Rosechu and I had a, before then I had a Pokemon website cause I was more interested in Pokemon at that time, plus also I was a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog since Genesis. [dumb voice] SAY-GAH!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So they just saw all your artwork and then they were just like, hey, let’s fuck with this guy?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. That’s, they saw my artwork as childish the way I drew. Anyway yeah, that’s a word association—you mentioned the fact of Genesis, I’ll say, SAYGAH!

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Word association.

Early video games
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So you play a lot of video games?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh yeah, I played a lot of video games.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So do you have any favorite video games, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, some, uh, yeah, I definitely like the, uh, I definitely like uh, anything with Sonic in it, but, but my favorite Sonic game would have to be Sonic CD.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cool. So how long have you been playing video games?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, pretty much all my life. My father also raised me on video games also.

Waitress: Would you like more drinks?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : No, I think we’re probably [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I think we’re good, thank you.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Sorry, I didn’t mean to [?].

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So he introduced you to video games? <font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, he, yeah, shortly before I was born the Commodore 64 computer came out, and he bought it and got it for me. The monitor, the keyboard, the whole hard drive in that, and the floppy disk drive, even the printer.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So what’s your first video game that you remember playing?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I can remember, I can remember a few from the, amongst the floppy disks I had, there was a Muppets video game, and uh, Ch-, and the Peanuts Charlie Brown video game with, about letters. And uh, and then among the floppy disks there was also Pitfall, Q-Bert, uh, Pist-, uh, Piston P For-, uh, Formula 1 Racing, um, and then there was a Donald Duck video game that I lov-, that was kind of delightful.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So how old were you then when you started playing? About six, seven years old?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, musta been like, uh, I’m gonna have to say as long as I can remember. Um, maybe at least one or, maybe at least six months to a year or two.

<font color="#DF0000>Al : From when you started school, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, started playing video games, started on the Commodore 64.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : At six months?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, I don’t know. I don’t remember, it was soooo long…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wait, a year old? Like, you can’t even walk at a year old, dude.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, maybe, well, OK well, maybe, well, OK well…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Maybe like two or three years old?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It was a long time ago.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?] you started to say, [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, that makes more sense, one or two. Two or two.

How Chris conquered autism
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you, when did you find out, when did you find out you were autistic?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, it was wr-, about within the first two years of my life. I said my first word, “monkey,” at about six weeks. I was trying to say “mommy.”

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s very impressive.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and then I, and then I came up with new words as I went and uh, then I just finally stopped talking at about a year and a half.

[Part seven ended]

How Chris conquered autism CONTINUED
<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and then I, and then I came up with new words as I went and uh, then I just finally stopped talking at about a year and a half. And my mom was very, my mom and dad, especially my mom was very, uh, what’s the word I’m looking for?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wait, you, you stopped talking for a year and a half?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Nah, I stopped talking at one and a half years.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Ohhh.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you [didn’t…?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Is that common with autistic people?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah that’s one thing that’s common among autistic people. Yeah they either, yeah they stop talking and they probably like never talk again, or like my mom had all her positive influence and whatnot, never stopped hugging me.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What sort of positive influence?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, hugging. Love. And like, you know, floor time, playing with me.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, that would do it.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And talking to me. Ah, I started talking again at seven.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Sounds very devoted.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes. Very devoted, they both were.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So they, they knew you had autism, then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, uh, what did they do, like what sort of treatment or special stuff did they do for you aside from just like, loving and caring for you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, uh, I don’t remember exactly.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did you have any kind of therapy at any point?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah we went to, we went, we went and saw, we saw people; we went up to the Coogi [?] rehab center. Krugi? [Neither Chris nor I know the name of this place.]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I don’t know [?].

<font color="#DF0000">Al : I don’t, I don’t know.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I haven’t been here that long.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Yeah, and I’ve been, I’ve uh, learned about robotics and computers there as well. [Catherine: “Hm.”] Yeah, that must have definitely been after two years old. Uh, I think I was three, four, or five when I went to, went to…Krugi.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and uh, went up to, and then also sessions over at James Madison University.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK, since that’s a different sort up there.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, yeah, and a few times over at UVA as well.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s good.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well yeah, I mean, obviously you’ve learned how to talk, so that’s good.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

High school years
<font color="#DF0000">Al : So do you still talk, you said school was pretty rough for you growing up. Do you still keep in touch with anybody from school?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, oh yeah, I tried to get in touch with my gal-pals in high school. Uh, high school, the best years of my life there. My, my closest gal-pals were very nice to me, very good. But then I found out that they were hired to be my protectors because my, my father had set up with the prin-, uh the principal and uh, and uh, [sigh]. Lost my train of thought.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Hey, well your father had, your father had what with the principal?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Worked, you know, talked with the principal. Set up…friends for me to hang, for me to hang out with.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Aww.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And, and like, you know, protect me from bullies.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Were you bullied really bad?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I was bullied a few times, yeah, considerably, uh...

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So it must have been really bad if your dad went to that length.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : If he thought that that was what he had to do. I mean, how bad was it? What happened?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, uh, well, it, comments made, there was kids who were teasing me, shouting, “Sonic’s dead.” As in Sonic the Hedgehog.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. And uh, then there was this one time on the regular school bus in my freshman year…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Mm-hmm.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I got beat up by, I got beat up real bad, kid punched my glasses off. He wanted to be the first off the bus.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Was that, he just, he just pushed you and [?] your glasses off?

<font color="#000099">Chris : He, he like, like…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Punched you in the face? What happened to him? Did you tell on him?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, I did tell on him. I’m sure he got punished, I don’t know exactly, but anyway…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well for something like that…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : He just punched you in the face for no reason?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [gets agitated] Well there was a reason: he wanted to be first off the bus!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well that’s, if something like that happened now, somebody would be, you know, get all kinds of detentions and stuff.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : But nobody did anything?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’m sure somebody did something. I, I feel certain he got punished. But any, but anyway, yeah, uh, broke, knocked, knocked a lens out my glasses then as well. Ugh. But anyway, the sad part for me is the remaining years of my, the remaining high school years, I had to go there on a handicapped bus.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Why?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Why would you do that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Because they feared, uh, they feared, uh, me getting bullied by somebody else on the bigger bus.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So they just… That seems like an extreme action.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Was that your parents’ idea or was that the school?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, my parents idea. I believe my father’s. Uh, but I, but I feel like it was the worse idea cause I ended up sitting, I ended up being randomly, ah well, I don’t know if I’m… Depending on how he felt, there was this very mentally challenged guy who was a little bit taller than me. He was like “bdeh, bdeh, bdeh, bdeh, bdeh.” [Chris blows three raspberries.] He had an older brother that helped him out. But, yeah, but he often one time just whapped me on the back of the head. A few times he did that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you rode on the bus with him?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah, I rode on the handicapped bus. So.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did you have any classes with him [?]?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I had no classes with any of, with anyb-, with anybody on that bus.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So he would hit you in the back of the head for no reason?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. Yeah, for no reason.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That sounds awful.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That’s awful.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I would, I would tend to think uh, it might be, from his perception, of maybe something like uh, [dumb voice] “Hey, high five! I said high five! This guy’s head is a bit like a fist so I’ll give him a high five!” Whap!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : He just didn’t understand.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : He didn’t understand.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I guess that can’t be counted as bullying then, I don’t think, because he…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, he didn’t understand what he was doing.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : He didn’t know better. Yeah, you can’t hold that against him.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I’m not, yeah, I w-, I’m not, I’m not gonna hold it against, I have not held it against him then except for the fact that it hurt.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : But his fath-, his brother told him that and made sure he understood and then, and then he stopped, but I still felt very uncomfortable sitting within that radius of him.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So what made high sch-, you said you were bullied a lot; what made high school so good?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, I got bullied a lot less in high school.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So then what made high school so [?]?

<font color="#000099">Chris : And then, and then I had my cl-, and then I got to have my closest friends in high school, my, my gal-pals.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But who were they?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah I can name them: Kellie Andes, Miranda Mitchell, Sarah Bevel, Tiffany Gowen…uh, for God’s sake, I can’t, uh….Did I say Kellie or Miranda first?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Kellie.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, Miranda Mitchell. Molly Quarles.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK. So that was your, like, group of friends.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : But didn’t you say that something happened and they all decided [?]?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, yeah, it was like, yeah it was like, it was like sometime after graduation. Yeah, we got separated, uh, and then I found, and then I found most of them on Facebook.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah?

<font color="#000099">Chris : And I tried communicating with them, but then they replied, it’s like, uh, they didn’t want to do a thing with me, and then this also ended up being a factor after the trolls came in and made a mess of my once good, made a mess of my good name.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So, what do you think the trolls had to do with that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, yeah, like uh, yeah they found out, they got to them first and told them everything, everything about, everything from their perception that was considered bad about me.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : What did they tell them?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh, I’m sure they told them like, [deep voice] “Christian’s gaaay.”

<font color="#009900">Catherine : But if you’re a lesbian, then technically that would be…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well no, yeah maybe, they didn’t, it was, they, they were mislabeling me as a, as a male homosexual there. Or otherwise that I was just plain stupid. Well anyway, then uh, all the things that they blackmailed me, tricked me into doing, I went into some of that with…

Chris's history with the trolls
<font color="#009900">Catherine : Blackmail?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Blackmail? Do you have…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, like, like I had my Playstation account on, in their grasp. Under the troll…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Did they hack it? Your Playstation?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah they hacked, yeah they hacked it.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So wait what, and then what happened? Like, what did they do with that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, they uh, ended up giving it back to me sometime, but I never realized I got to call Sony and then uh, reset, uh, get them to reset everything and then I get back in my…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Reset the password?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Reset the account.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. But they also, the, the trolls, they also changed the email address associated with the account, so that was a big, that was a bigger screw in the hole.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s quite a lot of effort they went to.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, why would they…they’re that, they wanted to fuck with you that bad?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : They’re that dedicated to messing with you?

<font color="#000099">Chris : They’re OK with messing with me, messing with him, messing with her, everybody they see as weak, cause they’re all stuck, they’re all stereotypically stuck in the basements of their house with their mother, with their parents being all overweight or whatever, yelling, shouting at them and everything, when they got all their high-tech equipment set up, and they just wanna fuck with errybody.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So have you, like, met these people, and that’s how you know they’re like that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, how’d you find out who they are?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, I, they pretty much revealed themselves.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh did they?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, and uh, I’ve actually met a few of them in person. Once, once or twice.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Really? How did you, how did that happen?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well one was had like a set-up, uh, where, with a f-, where I thought I was gonna make a, I thought I was gonna make a new girlf-, a girlfriend there. My father was with me that one time. But it turns out there was a camera recording, and hiding from somewhere else recording everything that was going on in that conversation.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wow.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Really?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah. And then uh, then this other guy came in dressed in a pickle costume!

<font color="#009900">Catherine : A pickle costume? That’s funny!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : A costume?! Why would he be dressed in a pickle costume?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I swear I was looking at you, that’s just so absurd.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah I know it is absurd.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Why a pickle costume? <font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, because early, early in the s-, early in the Sonichu comics, uh, I drew Sonichu eating lunch with Rosechu. He uh, he was eating a sandwich, he was eating a sandwich and he had pickle, it had pickles on it. Uh, it was like, “I hate pickles!” Ungh!

<font color="#009900">Catherine : And that was it?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, this Sssonichu character hated pickles?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, but I made it clear more recently that uh, he was allergic to pickles.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK. And that, and that…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Like, some people are allergic to peanut butter? Your Sonichu character in the com-, your Sonic guy is allergic to…

<font color="#000099">Chris : Pickles.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Why did you make him allergic to pickles?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Why pickles?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, because, because I don’t like pickles either.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, OK.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, I tasted them and I’m not really fond of the taste. I like cucumbers, though. I guess it’s more the pickle juice that…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I suppose it’s just the pickle [?] preserving process.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, what they do is they get cucumbers and they put vinegar in it to make…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Vinegar and other [?].

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, yeah, other preservatives to make the pickles, yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So. But no, um, you were saying, uh, so why’d they break off your gal-pals? Why did they break off contact with you after high school?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, they did, they just want, they just did not, they just essentially did not want me being happy at all.

<font color="#DF0000">Al :

<font color="#000099">Chris : No, I had not done anything to them.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Really?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Seriously.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So why did they, like what made them change their minds? Presumably they were fond of you in school, like they liked you or something.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um, well I’d say everything that the trolls told them. Um, but I think, I would say the trolls, they hated me initially, but then they wanted to find more stuff to hate me with, so they sent me emails and whatnot, uh, on the internet. Internet communications, since two thou-, since 2007. And uh, and I answered some of their questions publicly on the, I had a wiki-style website, Wikipedia-style. Not Wikipedia. It was called…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cool, so you had your own Wikipedia then?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah but I, it was just…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Like a famous person.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it was called “CWCipedia,” cause my initials C.W.C., Christian Weston Chandler. Saying the initials it sounds like the word “quick.” Zzzt!

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Like Sonic is quick, yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you had your own, what happened to your website? Is it still up?

<font color="#000099">Chris : No, they hacked it. And I just, I was like, they kept hacking it, and I was like, I was tired with it, I don’t want a website anymore.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So you just gave it up?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah and I, and I shut, I shut it down, pulled the plug.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So you just gave up and let them win?

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh]

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s sort of sad.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : You let them win, then that shows that they can bully you.

<font color="#000099">Chris : [stress sigh] Well I was s-, I was, that was years ago. I think it was like, 2008 or 9 that I pulled the plug on all the websites I had.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : That was a while back, yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : So, you could probably do it again, though.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Just to show them, like to get up there and show them that you are proud and that you are strong [<font color="#000099">Chris : “Yeah.”] and they can’t pull you down.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, it’s like, you know, even when I try to make a new relationship, uh, especially among the theoretical rex-, exes I had, I still could not tell which was which…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Wait, what do you mean, “theoretical ex?”

<font color="#000099">Chris : I was saying we never met in person. And then we communicated essentially online.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So theoretical ex is like, fake ex, or…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, it could be fake. But it’s like, uh, it’s, it’s a theory: I’m online, I’m talking to a woman, and then, likely, probably, on the udder guy’s [?] of a woman it’s a dude…pretending.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah, that’s not cool.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah. That’s, well obviously I’m not a [?] woman, so…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’m very happy about that.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Excuse me, I’m burping a bit.

Al wants Chris to get a job
<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah. So what, looking to the future, um, so your plan is pretty much move back into your old house and maybe Catie can move in, and…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh, yeah I think so.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So, how are you gonna take care of, uh, Catie then? And your mom? How do you, what’s your plan for that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : I think we, I think we’ll be able to pool our resources and, and finances, and do good. I know that doesn’t sound so swift, even I’m feeling that, but I mean, I just feel, I just feel like uh, we’re, we’ve been getting along very well and I don’t want to be alone forever.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : And, and you know, couples do work better together as a team, pool everything, you know?

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well Chris… [lets Catherine speak] yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I think Al is just concerned cause our family is so traditional.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah, that’s understandable.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It’s just, you know, you’re marrying not just her, but you’re marrying into our whole family.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Hm.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And we have high standards.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Hm.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And you need to take care of my cousin well.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I’ll sh-, I’ll take care of her the best I am able.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK. And if you, you just need to show her some respect and take care of her, and I’m not sure, I don’t know you too well yet. Right, so…

<font color="#000099">Chris : I, I promise you I will show her a lot of respect and I will do my best to take care of her.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK, well. We’ll see then. If you can prove that to me then you can prove that to me.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Hm.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Don’t be such a hardass.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, well, yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s alright, I mean, I understand. I’ve seen a lot of the si-, I’ve seen a lot of the type on the, uh, telly.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : He’s just looking out for me.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh yeah, if you, if you can treat her with respect, and you can maybe get a job, bring in some money, or continue this art thing?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Cause, it’s just, I think, eh, Cate would be happier if she was with someone who was doing something productive.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes, I…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Kind of like, getting into the art, maybe start up this comic thing again?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Or maybe get a job and stuff like that?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yes. Yes I will.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Because when some people stay around the house too much, you know, it’s too much time to get, like you’ve got to get out and like, do you take walks?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Like sometimes, when I was living with my mother and my brother and stuff,...

[Part eight ended]

Al wants Chris to get a job CONTINUED
<font color="DF0000">Al : ...I would go to work as a way to get away from them, you know?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Right.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Just have some stress-free time at work, so.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : But yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : I understand.

Attempt to escape
<font color="#009900">Catherine : (to Al) What time is it? We’d better go back to the mechanic’s before they close.

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s uh…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah what time…?

<font color="#000099">Chris : It’s ten after three.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Oh it’s ten after three, yeah they close at 4:30.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : OK, well we’ll, we’ll wrap it up here in a few minutes, so…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah. Because they’ve got, they’ve got my car, I gotta find out what’s wrong with it.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : So Mr. Chand-…

<font color="#000099">Chris : OK, OK yeah, so they got your car over there.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, that’s why Al had to drive me.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh that’s OK. I can, I can…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : [?]

<font color="#000099">Chris : Where, where, where, where was the mechan-, where, where is the garage then?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’m not sure.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Uh, we don’t know the…you don’t know the street address? No, we don’t, you, we don’t have the street…

<font color="#009900">Catherine : It’s, it’s in your GPS, I’m not sure…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well, OK, well I’ll, I’ll just, I’ll follow y’all.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Well I’ve gotta go, he’s got…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : It’s a pretty long way to the mechanic’s. So.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, it’s, it’s near my place. You’ve gotta drop me off and then I, he’s gotta go back home for work. I’m sorry.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Mm. I’m really sorry.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Um.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : If I had my own car…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : And this is, and the date here has dragged on a little longer than we thought.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Well that’s OK, I mean, I like, I like, I like talking. Conversing.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Alright.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : OK. And I’ll see if I can make rye bread for you.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Two weeks?

<font color="#000099">Chris : That’s on the thirteenth.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : That’s two weeks from now, I’ll try and see if I can make sure that [?] walking dogs and uh…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Well you can always talk with Catie over Skype, right?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah that’s, that’s another thing, I, yeah, did wanna get her, I did wanna help her out by getting her set up with a, um…

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah now do you have like a webcam or is it just a audio microphone, or what?

<font color="#000099">Chris : Uh…[apparently whips it out] I have an iPhone.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Oh, well you use Skype on an iPhone. So.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, you can do that.

<font color="#DF0000">Al : Yeah.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Yeah.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I’ve got it on my computer at home. But I’ve actually got a, a phone line. I’ve got unlimited text now. So.

<font color="#000099">Chris : [surprised] Oh you did?

<font color="#009900">Catherine : Yeah, I got, I got an upgrade, so I’ve got unlimited texts now.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh. Hm.

<font color="#009900">Catherine : I can give you my number if you want it.

<font color="#000099">Chris : Oh yeah, give me your number.

[Part nine ended]