Fun update

I haven't updated here in awhile, so suffice to say that I am really enjoying my new job, my summer class is going well, and in general I feel pretty relaxed despite my tight schedule. Yay!

ADHD strengths

I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago, but obviously have had it my entire life. Looking back on things from my childhood, teens, and college, this became quite clear to me. However, college itself was shadowed by depression more than anything else. My hectic college schedule helped me "self-medicate." However, when I tried cube-jobs with long-term open-ended projects, me and my ADHD clashed head on and the depression came back and the shit all hit the fan.

The awesome follow-up to this story those of you who know me are familiar with is that after all this, I took what has been close to a year and a half between jobs to volunteer, study, work on crafts, get outdoors, play with cats, and find my balance. Through that I rediscovered my love for arts and crafts, animals, nature, volunteering, calm and peace, positive supportive people, and healthy eating and working out. And I found out something I wasn't aware of before: one of my strengths is teaching adults technology and teaching children nature things.

To start teaching, I needed a push from very supportive friends and coworkers to venture to try my hand at teaching kids on field trips at the nature center and to help clients at a therapeutic horse-back riding center, but I found that I absolutely love(d) doing this! In fact, because I have a childlike curiosity for the world and can completely relate to kids' energy levels, need for hydration and rest breaks, and need to be able to take a break from learning about habitats to go "hey look, a large snake!", I can channel the energy of even the most hyper group of kids. And I love doing so. I finish field trips so happy and energized!

This is so much going to become part of my career or hobbies in some way, shape, or form. I am going to be mentoring a high schooler for a year and I am really excited to pass on the things I have learned about how it is ok to be a bit more hyper and scattered and how it is ok to lose jobs, seek new ones, have shit happen, get through it, find balance, and work on relationships with friends and family as an ongoing process. And I am going to hold onto the life lessons I have learned even as I begin a new office job, albeit in a different field, employer, team, and geographic area than the one(s) that gave me challenges. This time around, I am going to rock at what I do, and even if I don't, nuts to the world. I like myself and other people like me and that is all that counts. ;-)

This Week's Menu (and some Wegmans-missing)

I wasn't sure what to cook this week, so I decided to browse recipes at Wegmans.com. The only negative to doing this was that many of the ingredients were a bit different (ex: premade Asian slaw will have to be searched for at Sunflower later this week.)
Here are links to the recipes I will be making this week! I am super excited about this cooking plan!

Ambrosia Salad (dessert for 2 nights)
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=688035

Fruit Kabobs & Dip (desert for at least one nights):
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=347369

Rice and mushrooms and tomatoes:
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=732698

Jambalaya:
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=732719

Pot stickers with vegetables and stir-fry:
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=732699

Singapore Noodles and Chicken (not a shrimp fan here):
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=358062

Pork tacos:
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=714135

Musing of the day

Which is less wasteful? 1) using dishes and washing them in a dishwasher, including some pre rinsing because my dishwasher sucks OR 2)using disposable paper plates and bowls? Cuz I know for a fact that running a dishwasher uses electricity to run it and possibly gas to heat up the water. Disposable dishes use materials and probsbly electiricty during production and it generates trash.

On a side note, I have been pretty successful with not individually bagging my fruits and veggies to reduce the number of plastic bags I bring home. I also try to encourage cashiers to use fewer plastic bags on the (numerous) occasions that I forget my reusable bags. I figure that the bags I bring home can be used to dispose of used cat litter and the rest can be recycled.

Laughing at some lists from facebook "You Know You Have ADHD when..." I'm going to post some of my favorite "holy crap, I totally do that too" ones.

-You are listening to music and pause the song and finally realize 10 mins later that you paused it

-you lose your "train of thought" and get confused for a split second and get mad at yourself

-when you say "you know what I'm saying" after everything you say because nobody really knows what you're saying.

-you have to pee REALLY bad and it still takes you and hour to get to the bathroom!

-you stop mid-sentence and have no idea what you are talking about or what to say next.


-you find yourself wandering around the parking lot trying to look nonchalant wondering where you parked your car.....

when other people make *ME* look organized!

I get perverse joy out of not being the one responsible for a mix-up.

I had to be somewhere at ten and it was a forty-five minute drive there. It was getting on 9:15 (ADD time here) and it occurred to me I couldn't find my keys. I started by looking on the table, where I remembered placing them when I got home yesterday. Not there. Next, I looked in my backpack, basket of keys and miscellaneous things, going-out purse, coat and jean pockets, piles of paperwork, floor, bathroom counter, kitchen counters, bags I brought home groceries in yesterday, desk area, bedroom, floor and table once again.

I thought whether I could have dropped them from my backpack on my way home from school yesterday by light rail, but I was pretty sure I hadn't even taken them with me to class since I wasn't driving there. I wondered if I had dropped them somewhere in the apartment complex or locked them into the trunk, but I was pretty sure I remembered "beeping" the car to prove to myself it was locked.

Then I texted the boyfriend that I lost my keys and got a text message back that he didn't have them. Continued looking, and planning how to laugh off my reason for not showing up to the work event.

Then I got a call from the boyfriend with updated information. "I found your set of keys in my jeans pocket. No idea why I took them with me. Oops, sorry."

Me--laugh my head off privately because I get to be disorganized, but through no fault of my own. I get to call work and tell them "boyfriend took the keys on accident, car sharing can be silly sometimes". I get a valid excuse to work on homework and goof around at home all morning......a reason that has NOTHING to do with me.

And I get to congratulate myself for NOT losing my keys. This must mean I am actually organized!

Funny Websites and My Former Dog's Vajayjay

Haven't posted in awhile.
Here are some funny websites to distract you from work.

http://www.bluntcard.com/randomizer.html <--just click the "random card" button for some really snarky cards

getoutoftherecat.tumblr.com <--cats being silly

http://hungoverowls.tumblr.com/ <--hungover owls

www.coloradogives.org <--Colorado Gives Day 12/6/11 only! give to your favorite charity securely online. If you miss it, I still encourage you to donate.

What's new by me? I'm almost done with school, a cat is watching me blog this, and it's cold here with snow on the ground. It took me two years away from a very snowy East-Coast area before I decided I actually do like snow. But I do now. In limited amounts.

Snarky thought of the day: I had a dream about a dog I used to own and she was in heat and dogs all over the neighborhood were trying to mate with her. Really weird dream. Spay and neuter your dogs! Otherwise my dreams will be weirder than they already are.

Virtual Horses, Karma, and my Grandpa

Been kinda lazy lately. I started playing a horse simulation on my iPad that lets you pretend you own a horse. When I get to the 5th grade, I hope to try the my-dog and my-cat and get-a-life apps too. Ha.

School is good. Although karma got me good on Monday. I noted a forum post regarding where to locate an article referenced in several homework problems. I gloated that my fellow student hadn't thought to check the univerisity library's online databases and had only done a google search. Imagine my chagrin later when I realized this student wasn't getting an early jump on homework due the following week. The homework was actually due in class at 6:30 p.m. (I found this out at 5:30, half an hour before I had to leave for class on the light rail.) Yep, karma.

I couldn't blame karma when I found out my project paper (ironically about Inefficiencies for adult ADHD patients in obtaining ADHD medications that are classified as controlled) is due next Tuesday. I was absolutely shocked--had thought I had more time on it. Then I checked my self-imposed timeline for completing parts of the project and sure enough, it said "complete paper" on 11/1/11. No excuse. Well, maybe ADHD. Nah. More like, I forgot to actually follow the timeline I set out for myself.

My grandpa isn't doing very well and I'm not sure what to say to my mom. Please don't tell her this, but part of me is ok with him dying (peacefully) so that she can stop worrying day and night about his health and happiness and all. I want my mom to start enjoying her life without all us kids around and doing some of the hobbies and volunteering and socializing that people do at her age who don't have to care for elderly parents. (He's 93 and a brittle diabetic and heart patient. He's had a wonderful and lengthy life.) That being said, I will be sad when he dies. But it certainly won't be shocking or unexpected or any cause to feel guilt, bitterness, or anything else. I fear some in my extended family may bring these negative feelings to his impending death and this is such a shame. It bothers me. Hey, I can't predict my life, but say I get to a nice old age and have enjoyed my life and built positive relationships and lived in an honest and balanced manner--no hurt feelings, no family politics, no blaming when I do hit the hay for good. I want it to be bittersweet. People are happy to have known me during my life and happy to remember me and sad I am gone. That's all.

That all being said, I love life and intend to make the most of it for as long as I have.

The Elegance of the Beadcrafts

Been awhile since I have updated. I am reading Elegance of the Hedgehog. It's both witty and philosophical. Slow-going though, which is fine by me, since reading is the perfect activity on my trips to class four nights a week. (I know I should be reading my textbooks. I will start with that in earnest once exams begin to approach...)

I feel very happy in general. Not every minute, and certainly not without having worked for that balance. I have been working out a bit, playing with cats, doing schoolwork, pursuing some job leads, working on crafts, reading, watching tv, went to a corn maze last week with the boyfriend and had a blast, and socializing with actual humans a teeny tiny bit. Overall, feel pretty optimistic.

Here are my finished bead projects. Got the patterns from the same book I've been working out of. The stitching for all three is called peyote stitch and is pretty quick to do once you get the first few rows set up.

Strawberries: really fun to make! Lizard: took longer, may become a coaster or a wall hanging.

The Finished Piano-Keys Bracelet!!

Bookshelf Game

I just realized how amusing the titles of some of the books on my bookshelf would be if one adds "in bed" to the end of each title. (Just like in that fortune cookie game!) Try it:
note: some of the business books belong to my MBA-student boyfriend

The Essentials
An Inconvenient Elephant
Buy-in
Total Leadership
Barbeque
The Five Dis-functions of a Team
Complete Confidence
1001 Ways to Do Good
Getting to Yes
Tales from the Top
A Sense of Urgency
Why I Love You
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love
The Four Purposes of Life
Eat This, Not That
Bonjour Laziness
The Way of the Peaceful Warrior
Getting to Happy
Up in the Air
Eat, Pray, Love
(Good Housekeeping's) Stain Rescue
The Audacity of Hope
The Dilbert Principle
The Value of Nothing

Also, I am almost done with that piano-keys bracelet. Will post a pic when I'm done!

Beadwork project

Piano keys bracelet in work. New beading technique for me!

I am making a piano key bracelet with black and white seed beads (the really tiny kind). I am doing it with square stitch, which is a new technique I mastered last night with directions from a book of beading patterns and techniques I bought on sale at the Border's going out of business sale. The pattern for the piano keys is also straight out of the book.

This technique is an alternative to weaving on a bead loom, but it is much slower. Instead of adding a row at a time like on a loom, I have to sew on each individual bead. Having more trouble with knots in the bead thread (when it twists up on itself and makes a "fake knot" that you can only undo by loosening the twisted up threads before proceeding. (Not fun to do over and over, but it's the tradeoff I get for using such long threads.) I tethered the end of the string to a pedometer so it would have some stability, particularly when I started the first few rows.

This project is going to take awhile, but it's pretty enjoyable to do! I'll update when I have it mostly or fully complete in a few days!

The Infinite Time Error

Pic at left is cat popping out of the couch cushions. I waited a good minute with the camera before he popped out. I guess burrowing in couch cushions is fun if you are a cat.

Anyways, I am going to describe how the infinite time error works. Is this unique to me?

I RSVP'd to join a few friends at a Denver event happening today called Taste of Colorado. We are meeting up at noon today (note the current time, 11:32, and the impossibility of me joining them at the designated meeting time since I first have to get to an ATM to get out some cash and I need to take the Light Rail public transit to downtown Denver.)

Anyways, I decided to invite a few more friends to join me and they said sure, but then they said maybe they'd come by this evening and I said, sure just text me.

It wasn't until last night that it occurred to me that I am now supposed to be meeting two different groups of friends at the same event at distinctly different times. I want to hang out with both groups of friends and I told both I'd be there.

So obviously, some tactful text messages and decisions can resolve this. However......I fall victim almost daily to what I call the "Infinite Time" trap. It's pretty humorous actually. Things like counting backwards from my volunteer commitment at 3 p.m. (be there at 2:45, leave house at 2:15, start gathering water bottle and sunscreen and other things together at 2, stop watching tv at 2.) Instead, I'll find myself just starting to get ready at 2:30.

Other randomness: just finished The Smartest Guys in the Room, about Enron. Very long book, but it captured my interest from the beginning and stayed fascinating.

I'm not a crazy cat lady because I like to party

Cats are weird:
Tasks that require a cat-free space bother my "attention-whore" year-old cat to the extent that he feels compelled to do the most adorable, purring "kitty-flop" right in the middle of whatever I am working on. Whether he gets right in the middle of laundry sorting, putting together a puzzle (see picture), lays on the keyboard causing random windows to pop up, or joins me "helpfully" at the side of my plate of food waiting for handouts......it's a bit frustrating even though it is adorable.

I like to get out of the house and volunteer, hang with friends, study,work, whatever, so if I am a crazy cat lady, I'm in denial!

Random thing of the day: superhero powers. One girl said hers would be 3D vision in an ice-breaker for a class last night. Now, I completely stole this bit of snark from I-don't-know-where, but.....the world IS in 3D. What exactly was she wishing for?

By the way, I couldn't think of a truly awesome superpower, so I said I'd like the dexterity of a cat. Thinking about this further, my cats weigh about 10 pounds each and can jump about 5 feet with a soft landing (although it doesn't make the downstairs neighbor happy.) Extending the math, I would technically be able to safely jump 70 feet. You have to admit that's pretty cool, albeit a bit useless unless I were trying to get somewhere more quickly.

Non-cat things: Follow-up on the last entry--I finished "Disappearing Acts" by Terri McMillan and bought her recent book, "Getting to Happy" at a Borders 'going-out-of-business' sale. I am going to miss that store. I liked it so much more than Barnes and Noble.

Comment and tell me random things. Over and out.

Brain Freeze and Terri McMillan

Hi, this is my new blog:
Hello World. That is what you learn to command in the first class of any programming language. I am somewhat "software language" illiterate, but it seemed like a good way to start off a blog. The picture at left is from a bar in Florida.

Why this blog title? I have adult AD/HD and it is both really annoying and a pretty cool way to view the world. I might blog a bit about AD/HD, which is also known as ADD, ADHD, and "sometimes she makes sense and sometimes she is seriously coming out of left field". I'm currently a Denver girl, and I'm in school for a master's in business while I figure out exactly what career is ideal for me.

I might write about random things. I might write about things I am doing to keep balance in my life. I hope you enjoy reading what I write, but if not, it can be a "how-to-not-write-a-blog" guide! I will try to include cool random tidbits of info, and then some other topic that I am thinking a lot about or think is interesting.

Interesting thing of the day:
I read in a magazine, possibly Real Simple, that if you press your tongue to the roof of your mouth after having ice cream or drinking a cold drink too fast, it will prevent brain freeze. It really works!

Main entry topic:
I have been reading through Terri McMillan's books and I really enjoy them! It's not too often that I read my way through all of an author's work and it's been an enjoyable way to spend my summer so far. Here is a link to Terri's books:
http://www.terrymcmillan.com/view/herwork
I have read six of her nine books so far and plan to read the last three soon. I am midway through "Disappearing Acts" and after that plan to read: Breaking Ice, It's Ok If You are Clueless, and Getting to Happy. I also found an unauthorized biography of the author and may check that out.

Her books have a common thread of being mostly about black women and the friends, family, men, and personal struggles they go through and by the end of the books, many of the characters have undergone life revelations that have put them on a happier path. I like the stories because they are heartfelt, an engaging read, and because of those life lessons that the author is trying to convey.

Ok, now it's all up to you:
If you like to read, comment and tell me what authors or books I should check out. If you aren't much of a reader, tell me the best cold beer to test the limits of the anti-brain freeze tip I posted above. Or just write random things.