The High-Five Corner

[Robbo]

I hope some people talk about how they’re living with ADHD and becoming more happy. I promise not to talk about anything that even sounds like religion or politics on this thread, k?.

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[quizzical]

High five, Robbo, for keeping this thread alive! I can’t help but have a vested interest since I started it.

I haven’t been in here in a while – I guess because I’ve managed to get too many projects going, which naturally means I haven’t finished anything. Mostly silly housekeeping things in the name of “organization”; the old looking-in-the-cabinet moment that turns into “Might as well….” and then suddenly I’m re-organizing the entire contents of said cabinet. Expand that out to the entire kitchen, then to the adjoining rooms….

Alas, that seems to be the only way to make housekeeping fun; to turn it from a chore into some sort of challenge: why just scrub a dirty pot, when I can instead use my incredible Googling skills to sleuth out a magic potion that will dissolve the dirt like magic? Why just pick up a few stray items in the garage when I can instead start devising a lovely wall-hanging system?

Well, because there’s STILL a plastic bag full of pans soaking in ammonia in my kitchen after three days. Because the hammer and nails are STILL sitting in the family room instead of down in the workshop where they belong. I’m sure it’s making my family nuts, to have all these little works-in-progress all over the house.

Or not. No one’s actually said anything about it, for the most part. And the truth is, things are happening. Good things. It’s nice having the broom hanging on the wall. The stove top got the ammonia treatment and seven years of crud practically melted off. I may be working ADD-style, but, by God, I am working!

So high five to me, for getting *something* done, if not everything. And high five to my family, for their patience with my process.

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[Carrie]

Yes! High Five Robo for keeping it alive! WoooHooo!! Its not that the thread has died… I just really havent been doing anything but sulking and trying to adjust to the recent changes in my life.

Quizzical!! Yes high five!! Sheesh you are doing better than me right now! I have been avoiding EVERYTHING!

My whole house is packed up to move so thats yaaaaay! I now have a job in the city im moving to! Yaaaay! But now I have been putting off cleaning the house. The walls, the floor, I need to put new flooring in bathroom. BLEH! I just have no energy or motivation at the moment. My end of the month blues. I have been showing the house to potential buyers like today… I felt horrible! I was in a very cranky mood, basically went super fast “here are the rooms, heres the kithcen, it all works, hes the deck, heres this, heres that. What more can I say? JUST BUY THE DARN HOUSE!!” its to the point that I just want to sign the mortgage over to whoever the heck will take it as is so I dont have to clean it hahahahaha Anyone want a house? 5 bedrooms? Can come with 4 cats if you want!! They are super cute!!

Mind you I havent taken any meds in 2 days. I can really see the difference when I dont take them. Yesterday at work I was spinning around in my chair, looking around at everything, making weird sounds again, off in space, eat and eat and eat and eat. Today I havent taken them and now I ramble and ramble and ramble and ramble! OK! Im off to do this silly night shift!

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[quizzical]

Huge high five, Carrie for the new job!!! And another one for getting all packed up!

New flooring? OK, that sounds daunting. I’d be putting that job off too! As for the walls, get yourself one of those Magic Eraser sponges and just spot-clean a few random scuff marks; maybe that’s all you really need to do! For me, cleaning wall smudges is a good way to get myself going, because I tell myself I can do as many or as few spots as I choose, and on walls, a little work really goes a long way!

I am STILL majorly re-organizing my kitchen. This both is and isn’t a high-five! I’m fixing a lot of long-standing problems (mostly making things a little more logical in the cabinets) but every time I turn around I see something else I want to correct, and it just never ends! And of course there are odds and ends all over the counters left over from all this organizing that await my final decisions….I think I need to invite some people over soon to force myself to wrap it up!

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[Robbo]

Bak at ya Quizzy,

That’s a funny pic you use for your avatar, still cracks me up a lil inside. Sounds like life is getting tackled by you one way or another. We just do it different. I’m sure self acceptance is a big part of our solution, seems like you’ve got that.

Thanks Carry. I think it’s okay for us to “pout about it” once in a while. Even though Dad used to warn me not to or else he would give me something to pout about. Screw that! I don’t live under his roof. Ta hek with his rules. I don’t blame my parents any more, but sometimes I miss it. It’s so easy to. (Almost said it’s so easy to…alotta Blah blah blah, yadda yaddaonandon n on) changed my mind.

A few hours ago I remembered that I had forgotten to take a dose of methylphenidate, the phone was supposed to vibrate then make a buncha noise after that to remind me to pee, and to take medz, etc. It even vibrates loud. I may need to start a loud music anonymous meeting. Nah, I could never quit that one. Oh yeah, I was talking about medz. So about 7:30 pm I think, I decided to just bite off half of one of them. Now it’s 10:20 and I’m nice n full, made me a great feast of a dinner. Doing my bills, and decided to post about how I’m doing. N humbly ask for another high five, CuZ I stuck it out, showed up on time to my doctors appointment by waking up at 4:30 AM on tues. Got a new prescription, a little bit more, 5 mg 3 times a day. it’s helping me. I’m also cutting the wellbutrin in half. From 150 twice aday.

I ain’t even typing this in a word processor. N spell check’s not harassing me. (Accept for when I just tried to spell harass) Got it!, this 2nd time was a guess. I’m gonna try to get to bed early.

It’s just too weird being like normal people. NAH, never mind. We’re still not like other people. But who is? Just other people huh? that’s why call them… um, other people. How funny huh? what’s another name for other people?

This is fun. I’m still me, just less screwy and bouncing off the wallitch. ish. ***snickers at typo**** ***scritch scratch, ahh feels goud***now I’m laughing. I gotta confess, I laugh all the time while I’m writing. N listening to ROCK JAMZ! There’s a song by Garbage, called, “I’m only happy when it rains” lol, I used to listen to that after my accident while living with my parents. Now it’s on my kid’s iPod. I’m enjoying the music. My daughters iPod something,? from high school (the ones with the bad batteries) it’s about 7 years old, but i made a buncha cool playlists from her stuff, added a bit of my own tunes that go with hers. It’s great having a super kid. I wish the brat would call me, Oh crap, that’s right, she did at 6:00, didn’t hear that either. Called her back after I bit off half a 5 mg tablet of generic ritalin. It’s phone tag now… I may have about 10 minutes to spare so I can go pout about it. then I should at least consider doing the dishes. At least wipe out the cast iron skillet. I love my kitchen. Magic happens there. Then I eat it. Yum. I’m grateful I worked in so many fancy shmanteys restaurants over the years. I started that at age 19. Only in the last 2 months have I been able to spell restaurant right every time. Not cuz of meds, cuz I follow the advice here at the ADHD wonderland AKA Totallyadd.com.

<<<<<I was spinning around in my chair, looking around at everything, making weird sounds again, off in space, >>>>>>> Isn’t that normal Carrie? hehehe. yeah! yep, huh? then you remember to take your medicine. Now imagine your loved one looking at you with “that” look, n saying “did you take your medz?” n you … ****slugs hard n fast, storms off**** actually that’s just funmy to imagine for about 20 seconds. I hope you get that kind of treatment, oops I meant “don’t get”, still gotta proofread. One time something really crude mean and rude came outa my mouth to my um, Daughters Mom. A fine lady indeed. She slugged me in the gut so hard it knocked the wind outta me!, this was when I was about 23, solid and seemingly invincible. Just in my head. I bent over n she looked like quizzical’s avatar without the book, n we both laughed like crazy. We didn’t hit each-other fortunately. That was a fluke, I sorta deserved it. Cant tell ya what I said. Ah what the heck… Nahh, nebber mind.

Hope your night shift went well. Did you take your meds? ***covering up*** Never mind. Don’t answer. Um.. how was work?

ZZZZZOOOOOoooooommmmm>>>>>>>>>>********Bonk! Ack! ugh… my power chair is so dang fast!!! Seriously, I can pop wheelies! I’ll make a video.

Ratz! it’s almost 11:00. Tomorrow is like monday for me. It’s wonderful to actually have any kind of schedule or even a place I’m expected to show up for 5 days a week, multiple places. Heck I don’t have nuthing to pout about!. I need to think up some witty stuff to say to this pretty lady I met a few weeks ago. Any ideas ladies?, Gentlemen?

Thanks. Dang, I did proofread this in a word processor. But goofed it when I tried to copy n paste it back into the forum. I think I pasted the original from the board to my word processor. (like dysleximanianism) I need to make doctors appointment about my dysleximanianismoids… get some preparation, umm.. ? any ideas? What would that medicine be called?

3/1/12

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[Carrie]

hahahahaha oh my! I dont have anything witty to say. Im not too quick with things like that. My husband on the other hand is AMAZING with coming up with witty things to say. He always makes me laugh. And yes… Whenever I dont take my meds my husband always tells me to go take them. My dad always asks me if im drunk or high when im not on meds hahaha Im a hyper, weird, spaz. My night shift was fine. NO MORE NIGHT SHIFTS!! WOOOOOOO!

My high-fives… Got the house all cleared out. Nothing left there. My kids rooms and my room all fit in the back of my SUV. My husbands stuff… literally… trailer after trailer after trailer! UGH!! At least a lot of it was to the DUMP! MWA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA Ripped the bathroom apart. Have new drywall up! Woo!

Today I start saying goodbyes to co-workers I wont work with again Im no good at goodbyes. I never know what to say. Here we go!

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[kc5jck]

Carrie – like the stars in the sky, we’ll be here for you where ever you go.

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[nellie]

Wow Carrie , you get a high five just for being able to only fill the back of your SUV! Yours and your kid’s stuff? I’m impressed! I on the other hand would probably be worse than your husband in terms of quantity! A few years back we redid our upstairs floors so I had to pack everything into boxes and store it into the basement. I had big 35 boxes of my books alone!

As for high-fives – not sure anything really worthy. My house is a complete mess because I haven’t had time to do anything because I’m trying to finish a project for work – nearly done so I guess a high five but it’s been dragging on for 6 months so not so sure about that On the other hand at least I’m focusing on a priority – they can do their own laundry blast it!!

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[Carrie]

WOO!! BLAST THE LAUNDRY!! I HATE laundry! I told my husband to do his own laundry in December. Best thing I ever did hahahahaha Im a bag arent I? A bag and I LOVE IT!

One goodbye down… It was awkward.. what to say? Hug or no hug? uh…. I got my co-worker a gift too but I wouldnt let him open it until he got home because I didnt know how to handle him saying thank you hahahah Oh gosh, im such a dork. Such weird anxieties I have.

Kc5jck – Thanks… That was pretty corny, but thanks :p he he he By the way.. is that a pic of YOUR kitty?? It looks exotic! A bengal?

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[Robbo]

I figured out that a big part of why I’m late to doctors appointments in particular. I don’t like to wait, especially in a doctors waiting room, my second home, hell. Came up with an excellent solution last week. Just bring my laptop with me!. My most favorite entertainment, music!. It’s also reading, writing, art, tons and tons of photography. Hobbies galore basically. Take it with me anywhere I want! why didn’t I think of that before? Didn’t know there was a totallyadd.com before.

Stuck it behind my seat because I was waiting in an alley for a friend to run upstairs for snacks. Bad part of town. I get home hours later, used the electric seat adjustment like I always do to slide seat back enough to reach wheelchair from back seat, I unload it, and me, want to go get in bed, very exhausted. About to get out of car, wait… “Hmmm, there’s something I’m forgetting” Ah crap!, I hope I didn’t crush it.

Yep. The screen is destroyed. Can’t figure out what to call this pain. But dealing with ADHD for 47 years has given me the ability to just let these “ADD moments” slide. Yeah but, YEAH BUT, but I just… nah, it’s okay.

There’s always a solution. Could I please have a double high five this time?. I gave myself a break, instead of completely going crazy with grief and making a dramatic nightmare out of a easy enough to recover from, brain fart.

The solution happened in my head quicker than my old worn out dramatic tantrum drill had a chance to start. Maybe the ritalin slowed me down enough to think positive instead of impulsively reacting as if my world (hundreds of hours of re-arranging playlists, they’re nearly perfect…) has come to an end. I’ve got an old monitor I never got around to throwing away.

I wrote more, but deleted it. You guys have heard all about how I deal with these. Nuf sed.

3/5/12

PS, good post Kc, now when I’m out at night. Away from any big cities. I’ll think of this place. And then play with my new laptop. Got an excuse for a new one now! with a longer battery life! great!, just realized that.

TotallyRockstars.com. I just re-named this web site.

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[quizzical]

High five x2, Robbo! Huge! Enjoy your new laptop.

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[Robbo]

Ime riten gooder too, huh?

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[Anonymous]

Not really an accomplishment but I dealt with the disappointment of not getting a promotion I wanted much better than in the past. I heard about it on my day off which helped because being called in while at work and told you didn’t get it and this other person did can and is hard for most people to take. But because I heard at home I got angry and then I got my feelings hurt because I really felt like a failure, and then I accepted the results and was able to go out with the person who actually got the promotion and not blame him and/or be a bitch to him. Now that he’s working in the position I’ve actually had the opportunity to help him a few times.

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[quizzical]

Awesome, Lanakila! As a singer it seems like all I do is go around being annoyed at other singers who beat me out for this or that, so I really admire your taking the high road there!

Speaking of singing, it’s my latest High Five moment. I just posted this same bit over on the blog area, because Dr. Jain wrote an entry on using “Deliver” as a mantra. That ties in so well with the high-five moments that I had to copy/paste what I put there over here as well – here it is:

This past weekend I delivered a vocal performance I was really proud of. It was significant because it was the first time I performed a concert post-diagnosis and on meds. I was able to stay in the moment and just put the singing out there, rather than get all into my head as I so often do: about technique (“breath support! Tall sound!”), second-guessing (“Is this going well? Did that sound OK?”), what I was going to do when it was done (“Can’t wait to put my feet up and have a glass of wine!”), who was in the audience, etc, etc. I just….delivered! And it felt REALLY good.

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[quizzical]

Oh, and here’s a really silly high-five as well….

I “invented” a way to make my cordless phone hands-free using nothing more than a couple of elastic hairbands. (Alas, my phone has no headphone jack.) It looks really dopey, but at last I can do some things around the house while some of my chattier family members (at least one of which I suspect has undiagnosed ADD) keep me on the phone!

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[Author]

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