Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Beijing Baby



Sheena had a mini-vacation at Nan's house while I was on my business trip. She enjoyed luxurious uninterrupted naps, lazy lunches, and more cuddles than you could count.

Sheena was jumping out of her skin when I got back. She did a butterfly dance with huge smiles for 5 solid minutes while I cuddled her, and she kept on hitting me on the chest as if to say, "don't you leave me for a week again mum". I bought her a rather sweet outfit as you can see.

We had a busy weekend straight after I got back. A wedding on Saturday, a trip to the zoo on Sunday, then a comedy festival show on Sunday night. Trust me, this was all organised before I knew I had the week in China, but they were all seemingly fun. That was until we went to the comedy festival finale, and an the act straight after intermission openly mocked Autistic and DS people. We were sitting there with a group of friends, and I was sitting there thinking this can not be happening. It was horrible hearing the material let alone hearing the crowd laugh. At first it was the Autism jokes, and I was thinking imagine if there are any family members of someone with Autism, and then the next joke was on the DS, and it was like a punch in the guts. Anyway, I got upset and left in tears with my girlfriend, and then hubby who was sitting a few seats also left. It was not comedy. I emailed to the Comedy Festival Director, to which I have still not received a response 2 days later...

6 comments:

Jessica said...

Oh Jo, I'm so sorry to hear that you had to have that experience at the comedy festival, that's not funny at all! I refuse to watch a show here in the US after it made fun of people with DS.
But I am happy to see new pictures of Sheena in her cute new outfit!!

Sara said...

Good Letter!!!!! and I love the outfit!!! She is absolutely adorable!!!

L. Noelle said...

Good for you for writing a letter. However, I do think it was much too polite. Unfortunately, People who organize these events are very often unaware of the material the acts are going to perform. Trust me when I say, that most of the people in the audience were probably just as disgusted as you were at the Mockery and Jokes! Most people do not find Jokes like that funny at all, and I guarantee you the majority of the audience was probably laughing because they were so uncomfortable with the performance! These are very small incidences compared to the very MANY Positive experiences you will have with Sheena. The majority of people in this world have so much sensitivity and warmth for our babies/children that you won't even give notice to these idiotic people. I also wanted to know how the Ginkgo was going! Noelle

Michelle said...

Look how happy Sheena looks in those pictures; I love it!!

I'm sorry to hear about the experience with the so called comedy festival; how awful! Good for you for walking out and writing that letter; I hope you hear back from them.

Amy Flege said...

oh that is so cute Jo!! glad to hear you had a good trip and that Sheena enjoyed her mini vacation as well!

Shelley said...

She looks so beautiful - just gorgeous. As to the comedy festival - appalling.