Let's Hear It For Napkins on the Lap aka Sometimes you find solutions in the strangest places.

Where yesterday was a disaster as I struggled to find quiet places for us to hang out and he was increasingly getting agitated throughout making me frustrated while I had to hide that feeling and show peace and calm because he will feed off and increase his own agitation and frustration if he senses mine.
I had an idea last nite: I need a place that's quiet and I'd feel better knowing that everything is all set for me moving into an apartment in the middle of thanksgiving weekend. Electricity account ready to move, same with cable, mail, etc.
My new apartment complex has large spacious rooms in its offices, perfect for two people like, say my charge and I, to play uno, skip bo, backgammon, do some reading, etc.
So I got to do both things, find a quiet place for us today and ease some worries about me having forgotten anything.
So it was amid that I suggested we go find lunch and asked if he felt like doing something safe (going to a nearby whataburger or Mcdonalds) or was into exploring and seeing what he found.
He chose the latter and we came across Moonies Hamburgers. He agreed to try it and I'd been there once before and remembered they were famous for an amazing chili burger.
I asked if he'd ever had one and he said he'd had sloppy joes.
I said, this is like sloppy joes AND a hamburger. The shine in his eyes must be what it was like when prospectors saw gold.
When our food came he saw how messy it was.
And he did something ....
ok, sidebar:
(I've been trying for more than one year to get my charge to put napkins on his lap for proper table hygiene. And he wouldn't do it and I realized his family didn't put napkins on their laps either so this wasn't just a change in etiquette change for which i was fighting but changing potentially how his family does things. And he's not interested in being a change agent, at least not on that topic. So I haven't pushed that one lately and it fell off my radar.)
End of sidebar

And he did something that shocked and thrilled the hell out of me: He announced he was putting napkins on his lap. Now it'd be wonderful if he said he was doing that because it's the proper etiquette or he was going to do it from then on.
No, instead, he announced he was doing it so he wouldn't get chili on his clothes. And I told him that is one of MANY reasons people put napkins there.
But i didn't want to overdo or ruin so i just gave him a high five for doing what he did, perhaps a way to encourage more of the same in the future when eating foods that are not chili burgers.
Sometimes he doesn't want to try new things - today he was open to it and it went great.
#winningandreportingonbattleswon
#aglimpseintomylife