Mashing Potatoes

[Anonymous]

Yesterday, I was making dinner and got to the mashed potatoes, put the hand mixer together and realized I had so many thoughts going at once as I did this. Then I put in the milk, butter, salt and pepper and thought, “I wonder if other people just think about mashing potatoes when they are doing it or if they think about other things too. I bet Martha Stewart has to be thinking of other things right? I mean, doesn’t everyone? I’m going to ask my husband. I need to add more milk to get these creamier and more butter, well it’s not really butter, it’s margarine, I hope my eldest will eat these, she’s not really a fan of mashed potatoes but maybe with the tomato sauce on it, she’ll actually eat them, I need to remember to ask my husband, I should tell everyone to wash their hands and then I can put these on the stove and get out the forks and glasses, but I need plates still…”

So yeah… I asked my husband if he just thinks about mashing potatoes when he’s doing them, and he said, “Yes. I just think about what I’m doing. Or if I’m making gravy, I’m just thinking about making gravy.”

I seriously had no idea that people didn’t have thoughts bounce around like I do. I just thought for sure that was what everyone does. I’m a bit blown away by it all.

So, am I the only one that this was a shock to?

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[Scattybird]

This is something that intrigies me too. Not the intricies of mashing spuds although they do taste good if you add milk and proper butter. Definately not the spreadable type. Then mix with vigour. Nice.

But what goes on in peoples minds exactly. When I was wondering if I had ADD before I was diagnosed, I used to ask people what they thought about when doing a task and the answers varied. Most people said they concentrated on what they were doing but some said their mind wanders. BUT what does that mean exactly? How much? I have no concept of what it is like to just think of one thing. But surely everyone must think about more than one thing at a time?

I got near to experiencing it the first time I took ritalin but it never repeated itself unfortunately.

But I would like to know how many thoughts are in the head of a so called normal person. It can’t be human nature to think of one thing at a time? Maybe that’s called concentrating? Who knows. Even in hyperfocus I don’t concentrate that well; I just become determined.

Might go and mash some spuds.

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[Anonymous]

It seems there is a lot of information on what goes on in the ADD mind, but not much in the way of what exactly is “normal”. I mean, if how I think isn’t normal, then I need to understand “normal” to know where I diverge right?

You should totally make potato cakes with the mashed spuds btw. They’re delicious when you get a nice crust on them. (I learned you have to be patient and let them cook 15 minutes or so a side and not turn too soon. Who knew?)

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[kc5jck]

I had a cat once that liked mashed potatoes. Do you put on a little green onions with your mashed potatoes? I don’t use margerine, never have. I like butter. My wife used to get onto me for making tea with a quart measuring cup. She wanted me to use the iced tea maker. Then she read about all the chemicals that leach out of the thing and started using the measuring cup or actually, it was a coffee maker that she only uses for tea. She has another one for coffee. But if I make mashed potatoes, I get the instant.

Why would your eldest like tomatoe sauce over gravy? Well not over, but instead of. My kids are gone, but they generally prefer my cooking over my wife’s. Can you believe that someone making mashed potatoes would only think about making mashed potatoes while making them? Especially if you’re using an instant. I mean how hard is that? That would be like only thinking about walking and nothing else as you go from one room to the next.

I wonder if ADHD people who sky dive think about other things while falling to the earth and forget to pull the ripcord? Wasn’t there a question you asked?

We have a new dog coming in a few days, a Coton de Tulear. We’ve been cleaning the tile this morning. Our other Coton got really sick last week. We came down stairs in the morning to what looked like a murder crime scene with blood and other … well I’ll not go into the gory details. Anyway the dog is ok now.

Oh yeah, mashed potatoes. I should be doing payroll now. But my boss won’t care. Oh yeah, I AM the boss and I’m having all these thought while or instead of doing payroll. Well guys, don’t get your hopes up for getting paid today. It’s raining out, I think my cat hurt his leg jumping off the roof earlier.

Well does this answer your question? Well, I better go, it’s getting near lunch time. Hmmmm … mashed potatoes.

Oh yeah, people that say they only think about what they are doing while they are doing it, have to be lying. It’s simply not possible. Those are the facts, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

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[Scattybird]

Thanks for the hint about potato cakes. I sometimes justy fry them with left over vegetables. I don’t always get them right so I think you’re right about being patient.

I agree there’s not much out there on how normal folk think. There must just be a spectrum ranging from one thought at a time to zillions of thoughts that we will fall into – we being everyone. Normals must have some similar issues to us though because there are lots of self help books aimed at the general population on how to focus, organise, not procrastinate etc.

Maybe Dr J could write a blog on what goes on in a non ADD brain or drop a line or two here – please? 🙄

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[Anonymous]

I like you Kc5jck. Glad to hear the dog is doing well and I hope your cat didn’t hurt their leg especially if it’s raining. Instant mashed potatoes are eww, though I resort to them now and then. You can use them in taco meat to thicken it up and soak up the grease. She does like gravy on her mashed potatoes if my husband makes it, but technically the tomato sauce is “gravy” because it was cooked with the riceballs/stuffed peppers, so tomato sauce with meat is technically “gravy” (so the food network told me. )

I need to get back to transcribing an hour long audio file and would never consider sky diving. Way too scary. I don’t jump out of perfectly good airplanes.

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[Scattybird]

kc5jck glad your dog is ok. Sounds horrible. My dog is ill at the moment and I will lose her this week so no chance of me concentrating on much at the moment. She is the one creature on this planet that understands me. Good friends are hard to find and she is the best.

Instant mashed pots are horrible in the UK if you mean the powdered ones? Well they were 30 years ago and to be fair I haven’t bought them since so no doubt they are better now. I buy them in tubs already done. Just microwave for 5 mins and they are great. Guess an expensive luxury if there’s a bunch of kids to feed though.

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[laddybug3]

Danvi Reminds me of a story I had to read back in 8th grade. The story was not about this cup, but I was so interested in knowing more about the cup. Don’t remember the title of the story just remembered the cup. In fact, the teacher got annoyed when I asked her questions about the cup. I wanted to know the color, did it have any words, the size of the cup, brand, and what type of cup it was. I could not even finish the story because of all the cups in the world. The teacher could have made up something about the cup.

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[Anonymous]

My daughter gets like that too laddybug3. I do make up things sometimes or we go look it up together (if we can) to satisfy her curiosity.

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[Anonymous]

There’s a zen saying: chop wood, carry water (mash potatoes)

I too, think of everything under the sun when mashing potatoes, sometimes I just mash potatoes. It’s part of the experience, enjoy it!

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[Bill]

That’s why I like doing laundry. It gives me a chance to think.

I like cooking too and, like people here, my thoughts go all over the place. I’m still a good cook, just a little slower because I have to keep going back to the recipe. I can forget whether it was a half or a full cup of flour during the time it takes me to get the flour out of the cupboard, or was that corn starch?

But you know what? Sometimes those thoughts give me an answer to a question at work or an idea for a party or a way to get the thermostat working. Keep a pad handy and write down the thoughts worth keeping. You’ll be glad you did.

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[sdwa]

My mind never shuts up. As I was reading your post, I thought – no matter what I’m doing, I’m thinking about something else, all the time. All day, every day. Even in my sleep. My mind is like Grand Central Station at rush hour with an orchestra playing in the background and newspaper vendors shouting. I’m a terrible cook, too. Connection?

I had to laugh when I read Bill’s comment about writing down thoughts in a notebook. I have a house load of thought-filled notebooks. Great ideas that may never be used.

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[Anonymous]

I think I do tend to think about what I am doing UNTIL a trigger happens. It’s kind of like a spider web. A question will pop into my mind which may lead to another and I instinctively run to the Internet to find the answer or answers. Is this knick knack worth anything? What about this magazine? What’s the name of the song that has this lyric? etc etc…

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[Robbo]

hehe, this was fun to read. I couldn’t sleep so I finally got up a couple hours ago. I think we all have different degrees of how busy our brain gets. That’s one of the bigger symptoms I think. It’s embarrassing when I jump around from subject to subject and keep on going farther and farther out in left field. This whole scatterbrain thing that happens with us is also a problem with lots of people who don’t actually have full on ADHD. with us it’s just more severe. Somedays it takes me 2 or 3 times as long to edit/proofread a post as it does to write it in the first place.

I like french fries, I cook em in olive oil so they’re not so unhealthy. For ADHD people I think it’s normal to think about a bunch of other stuff while doing something sorta boring. It’s hard work but when I try to meditate and give all my attention and interest to what’s directly in front of me it becomes more interesting. I have to practice that tons!, it’s possible to calm my brain down but I’m looking foreword to being able to try getting some help with medication. Then maybe I can develop better mental habits like meditation, and focusing on one thing without hyper-focusing. I’m looking foreword to finding myself somewhere in the middle. Being able to relax will also help me deal with chronic pain better.

The health care I get has some extremely slow moving gears, and I’m so dang fed up with waiting for yet another appointment. Our health care system here in California just plain sucks. In more ways that I have the energy to write about.

I’m too grumpy to edit/proofread, so pardon my typos if I do have a few. I’m not a happy camper this morning. This thread did cheer me up some though.

Happy taters.

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[quizzical]

Wow, DaniV, your internal monologue is so familiar. If that were me, I’d consider that stream to be fairly focused, since all the questions had to do with potatoes, and with dinner!

Your question to your husband was very familiar as well; I remember asking the same one to my husband a long time ago: “What do you think about?” He almost didn’t understand the question. He said he didn’t really think about anything, unless he was actively trying to think about something, as in, trying to solve a problem.

At the time I was incredulous: “You mean, even when you’re sitting in a boring waiting room, you don’t let your mind just….wander?”

He said perhaps he did, but he wasn’t aware of his thoughts; he had no recollections of specific thoughts, and certainly no Favorite Daydream Topics. This just totally blew me away, all the more so because my husband is a very intelligent guy; he’s got plenty of brainpower. The idea that he wasn’t going around 24/7 in Deep Ponder and/or Random Imagining was incredibly alien to me, since THAT IS MY LIFE. I’d just assumed everybody had all kinds of silent conversations with themselves. After all, mind readers need something to read, right?

So I’ve been curious ever since then: Is it that some folks don’t actually have lots of thoughts bouncing around, or simply that those thoughts don’t interfere at a conscious level?

Hmmm….must go ponder this a while….: )

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