On Monday, I decided to have a barbeque the following day, my birthday. I called various friends, many came, and we had a great time.
I only noticed one startled look, I figured out what I had done wrong, managed to make a joke of it, and the woman laughed. That was it for my Asperger Syndrome. My wife commented afterwards that she was surprised that I had suggested such a large gathering. Thinking about this, I realized some things I had never recognized before. Like many revelations, they seemed obvious once I'd noticed them, but they were new to me.
What would have happened if I had tried to do the same thing twenty years ago? Well, for one thing I would probably have made more faux pas twenty years ago - even I gradually learn how to behave. But the more important change is that the other people who I associate with have also grown older: twenty years ago, the woman might have worried that by laughing it off, she would be viewed as unladylike or something.
To us Aspies, it sometimes seems as if 'normal' people always know how to behave, and have no worries. Now I think that the main reason they sometimes react so negatively to our mistakes is that our unexpected behavior produces a situation that they don't know how to handle, so they feel threatened. Twenty years ago, many of these people might have reacted to my invitation by saying to each other "Let's not go; John's bound to do something weird." On Monday, perhaps they said "Let's go; John's bound to do something amusing."