Welcome to
The Dude's Crappy Situation
It's July 22, 2025. Days without a bathroom: 112

The dude was born prematurely, weighing in at 1 pound, 9 ounces and survived many complications and defied many odds. He's done things no one ever expected him to do: walked, talked, survived necrotizing enterocolitis as a neonate, survived a grade 4 intraventricular hemorrhage at birth, competed in Special Olympics in track, graduated high school, took a few college classes, became a food blogger and was featured in The Charlotte Observer (Food With The Dude), and became an avid equestrian who has his eye on Special Olympics Equestrian. 

His premature birth left him with spastic Cerebral Palsy, damage to the frontal lobe of his brain, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and some other diagnoses that are co-morbidities of the aforementioned. He's got a lot of hopes and aspirations in life and is generally a pretty cool human.

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He has a real name, but he prefers to be called the dude, no relation to The Dude from Big Lebowski. This all started because I had a nickname for him when he was little. The day came when he outgrew it and let me know in no uncertain terms he wished to have that nickname retired. When I asked what he'd rather be called, he responded simply "I'm just the dude you gave birth to." and he prefers it all lower case because, in his words, "I'm not royal or anything, so no caps." 

I'm his mom, by the way.

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Oh, his favorite color is blue, so despite my own predilection for all the purple things, this is about him, so blue it is!