Monday, September 8, 2008

What goes better with cookies than dreams?

A cookie was dropped off to me - which I love! Anyone who wants to bring me desserts - please do!

Unfortunately my phone is not at my side!?! Pretty shocking.

I almost gave up on posting, and even life in general, or at least eating Cool Ranch Doritos - but I decided to get up, dust myself off and get back on the blogging horse I ride every day. It was a pretty big move.

So yeah, no phone means I don't have a picture of the cookie. When I retrieve it - I will post a picture of the tag that was attached to the cookie. The Cookie has been eaten - so there's no hope of one for now, and I couldn't find one online. The cookie, however, was from "Cookies & Dreams" though not, apparently, the chain store that bears the same name. These are for the New England Autism Center and are to raise funds for vocational opportunities for Autistic children. There's a whole story about it you can read here (Thanks Google for caching things!)


The tag, as you can see (or will shortly), is in the shape of a puzzle piece as they are 'putting the pieces together in Vermont' for kids with autism. Kind of a cool thing. You get to eat a cookie, and support a good cause. I actually have known a number of people with autism, from mile to severe, and many of them are quite well adjusted folk. One of the people I know actually didn't speak a word, occasionally making a sound or two, until she was more than three years old. You couldn't tell now as she's probably one of the most talkative people I know. I think she's making up for lost time - of course as women frequently speak more than men, word for word in a day, it could have been a normal amount and I'm just inflating things unrealistically. I do have a tendency to exaggerate once or twice a year.

Anyway - on to the cookie! If I can define a comfort dessert - it would definitely be the chocolate chip cookie. As a result - I don't frequently buy them. The Nestle Tollhouse tubes in the freezer section just don't get it right, the pre-cooked and pre-packaged storebought ones don't either. They either are crisp and flat, huge and half cooked, taste like some lab concoction, or are much like cardboard with some chips tossed in for good measure. Not this cookie. It was just like mom used to make, only better as it hadn't been sitting around for 20 years getting dry, stale and moldy. It was a tad soft - but that's what happens when a cookie isn't eaten straight from the oven. That's really the only way this cookie could have been more satisfying. On the Chocolate Chip Cookie scale - I'd definitely give it a 9, maybe a 9.5 on the olympic scale of a perfect ten. If I could eat one out of the oven and have a glass of cold milk nearby to chase it with - I believe we would have attained perfection.

Speaking of scales, I'm looking to create a scale of my own. So look for that to appear soon - so you can receive a clear rating of all these desserts I'm tasting.

I would love to tell you where this cookie came from - but it's still unclear. In the meantime - if you want to order some or offer assistance theres a number attached to the tag 802-999-8024 or newenglandautismcenter@gmail.com. I'm in touch with the folks who are behind this and I'll provide updates as I hear anything new.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks you for the write up. Linda is a great friend of mine, who has been dedicated to making strides to service ALL people on the Autism Spectrum, and for this I am greatful. I also have a child on the sprectrum, named Ben, and with Linda's help and the help of many dedicated individuals , and people like yourself, who stand up or "belly up" to a good dessert and take notice, the New England Autism Center will be up and running in no time to service the Adults in our state who are so severely underserviced.
As it stands now I will be moving my son out of Vermont when he reaches age 22 and transistions our of services to NOTHING. Yes that is what is in place for our , as you desribed, adjusted folks . They have the opportunity to transistion into nothing, hence the reason I would have to take Ben to antoher state to get adult services.
So dessert guy , you rock for keying on on the cookie and it's cause. Not to mention it's a cookie, so you can't go wrong. Oh yes and one more important piece of this puzzle , is that every time you buy a cookie you support a local person who is on the Autism Spectrum. This particular person happens to be Linda's son. A beautiful young man who just transitioned out of scholl and into nothing, so what did his mother do? She made him a position to something he loves, and create a job for him.
Now that's a MOM.
Thanks for the write up it is great.
Another mom with a child touched with Autism.
Jill St.thomas-Benoit
Vermotn walk chair Autism speaks

Anonymous said...

sorry about my typos, i was so excited aobut the cookie write up i typoed all over the place.

Admin said...

Thanks for the kind comments Jill - no worries about typos. If it wasn't for spell check - my blog would be full of them. I admit, I'm a bit ignorant about Autism, as many people who aren't affected directly are, and hadn't realized the dilemma at age 22. I certainly don't know that I can too much to help with that dilemma, but I hope I can do something.