January Stuff

January already feels like a race, so much to do! How can it be the fifth day of the year and I'm already this far behind? The good part of this is, I have side jobs, and am also submitting a resume tomorrow for a great job. So why am I here blabbing, I mean blogging, instead of tweaking my resume/cover letter? No, I don't know, I'm asking you all why!

Sometimes I just plain can't think.

I've worked every day since I got back from Indiana, that's helped me to not be too sad, missing my grandkids. Noah is 8 weeks old! He's outgrown his newborn clothes already, and he smiles and laughs and coos all the time. He's so happy, and it's impossible to not be happy just looking at him. See?

So many personalities, so little time.

I have multiple facebook, twitter, myspace, windows live, and blogger sites that I can't even find. So many personalities, so little time...

And the websites, if it's free...I got one. I just don't know where they are or what I named them or the password. I feel so guilty taking up all this cyberspace. Most delete them after a certain amount of time, so I hope like bad debts only years faster, they are gone.

This and 1 of my facebooks is all I ever show up for. I was following me on Twitter but I got lost. Oh dear.

adhdday

Technorati Tags: add adhd hyper distracted rambling

I published this yesterday, then deleted it, then made a change, and I'm republishing. It had two sentences in it that I decided were inappropriate for this context. But, in the few minutes that it was here, I got several comments and hate that I don't still have them. Is there anyway to get them back? I got 4 emails asking why I deleted the post, and I really think it was up there less than an hour. After listening and replying to them, I thought I'd throw it back up here, sans a little bit of it. Not that it's interesting, but just because I wrote it and that's the purpose of this for me. Just to put anything and everything that I want here. If I have things I want to write about that are more private, I might make another space. I don't think so though, my life's pretty much an open blog.

I thank everyone for their comments and feel free to repost.

Feb 23

Some days more than others my adhd is a problem. Today is one. I went to run errands with a friend, and I must have wandered off in stores a dozen times. At one time, she wanted me to help her with something, and a salesman was also helping us. He went to check on something, and I found myself reading the backs of TV tuner card boxes to see what would fit my laptop and how much they were. Then I remembered her and went back across the store and acted like I'd been there the whole time. Then she said something, and then I was playing Playstation 3, 3! that was set up and there was a Nascar game, and it did hold my attention until I noticed she was next to me to see if I could come back over and help her. I felt so bad. This is not just rude behavior, I wanted to help her, and I would not do anything rude to her, ever. I just don't know what happens. It is funny in a way I know, and usually my antics amuse me and those around me. But sometimes I really really try to behave, and I just can't.

I think later I'm going to write a little about add and adhd, it's a very important part of my life, influencing about everything, and SO many people have it and don't know it. It's a lot easier to handle when you know you have it, and you learn coping skills. AND, you learn to enjoy the great things about it!   Wanna Ride Bikes?  Jan

Wanna Ride Bikes?

The thing is, is i don't know what to put on paper. what to actually write. But my head is always so full of chaos, and it's supposed to help to write things down. Like if i write some of it down it gets rid of it and there's more room in my head. Although all that's gonna happen is the chaos that's impatiently (no, chaos cannot wait patiently) waiting in the wings or maybe around my ears or somewhere else close to my brain because i don't actuallly have wings, is going to flood in and take up the space left by what i put on paper.

I'm adhd, and most of my life I've been very good at working around it. I've usually used it to my advantage, but right now my life situation has changed and it's driving me a little nuts. Can you tell?? I used to own a day care, which was the perfect job for me, because my attention span was the same as the toddlers! Every few minutes we could do something different and everyone was happy. I've done that on other jobs but everyone was NOT happy. I do well when I have a full time job and go to school and take care of people and pets and houses and yards. I love to clean and cook too. The more I have to do, or the more pressure I'm under, the easier it is for me to concentrate. I'm very busy right now, but not under the same pressure. I get very sidetracked, very easily.  Hey, wanna ride bikes? 

What Happened?

I got home and came right in here to write an article on ADHD. I was looking for a book I was going to use for reference, and I looked under my bed and there was an electrical cord tangled under a storage container. I didn't recognize it, and started pulling on it to see what it went to. I tugged until my blood pressure monitor fell off another storage container. When I saw it, I remembered that I was supposed to be keeping 2x daily track of my bp, per dr's orders. So glad I remembered. So for the first time in about a month, I took my bp. It was high, 165/101, but not as high as it sometimes is. I was wondering exactly how high is high enough to warrant a trip to the ER, so I went online to Google the info. So I ended up on WebMd, and on the home page, there was an ad for one of their slideshows: "Identifying Bad Bugs and Bug Bites." Well, I caught this huge Black Widow Spider the other day and have it in a jar outside, because I was going to take it to Bays Mountain Nature Park to see if the guy there thought it was an extra large Black Widow. I'm sure he would have thought so, but now when I went outside to get the spider in the jar, it seemed to be much smaller than I remembered. The spider appears to have gone on to it's happy web in the sky, and it's shriveled up and is much smaller now that it's it's .... not alive. But, I thought when I caught it....hmmm...I'm not sure I could identify a Brown Recluse Spider, there are so many light brown spiders after all. SO, this afternoon I saw my opportunity to correct that. I clicked on the Bugs slideshow, and started looking at these bugs. Go there and you'll see how easy it is to be sidetracked!  http://www.webmd.com/allergies/slideshow-bad-bugs

I used my google snippet tool to keep one of the photos in case one of those spiders finds me and one of us needs help in identifying the other. I had completely forgotten about the violin shape on the Brown Recluse! Can you imagine?

 

So anyway, I wound my way back to the Hypertension site, by way of updates on new ADHD medications, and I saw that I definitely need to watch my bp closer, but not run to the ER. And about those adhd meds....       JAN

 

Technorati Tags: ADHD,attention deficit disorder,rambling,writing,hypertension,blood pressure,BP,spiders,Black Widow Spider,Brown Recluse Spider,Bays Mountain

 

 

Ann Taylor and Cuban Black Bean Soup

Technorati Tags: adhd,clothing,sale,Salvation Army,church,Goodwill,jeans,painting,food

K. I'm back home and really am going to get started. I have a pot of Cuban Black Bean Soup on the stove, even splurged and put a little Chorizo in it. Good news, Pat said Goodwill was having the sale, but it was Salvation Army, which I like much more. Every now and then they have a dollar sale where every item of clothing, even heavy coats and shoes, is a dollar. I bought a blue stripe button up shirt and a black sweater. In the past, I've bought several blazers and suit jackets, some brand new, and brands like Jones New York and one Ann Taylor. Yep, for a dollar. I plan on wearing them if I go back to working a regular job and not painting. Painting is very hard on Ann Taylor jackets. The only place I wear anything but jeans is to church, and boys and girls, we know how often Jan goes to church, don't we? Jan comes home and blogs about it and sends church humor stories. Yes, it's been a while. I did go to church a couple of weeks ago, it was on a Saturday afternoon and they were having a pig roast.  Yum, I like that church.  Jan

light

 

I've read that sleeping in total darkness is good for you. It's never dark in my room. I've got so many little blue, red and green leds, you'd think it was a space ship. Or a Circuit City.

I like it, it makes me feel high tech, and like I, I don't know, have stuff. lol. A lot of the leds are on the same things and on very inexpensive things, but I like them anyway. And if I unplugged everything - please don't bombard me with eco-carbon-footprint stuff, (there's an Eastman Chemical Company on the other side of town), there'd still be a lot of light, because I have white blinds and thin white curtains, and there's a big ol' street light down the block.

I don't like it when some of these leds are attached to things that beep though. It took me forever to figure out that the reason my computer often sneezes, is that when one of my 'buddies' signs on to AOL, there's a sneeze wav that plays. I didn't know what was making my computer sneeze, until I started opening my buddy list and I looked up all the wavs and stuff. Actually, there's not a sneeze one, but I'm assuming, or just making it up...that at one time there was, and she got the wav then. Hey, when I "figured?" that out, it stopped driving me nuts anyway. And there are wavs like coughing and doorbells and dogs barking.

Once a few years ago, there was a very faint beeping in my house. Listening, repeatedly muting the TV, and sneaking around, eventually led me to the garage. In the garage, I tracked the noise down to a big, dust-covered box that had been packed away for a couple of years. I pulled it down off the shelf, and slowly and carefully opened it. (I grew up watching all those police shows where there was usually a beeping time-bomb involved.) And we don't want to talk about how umm...rich... my imagination is. So, I open the box, and start removing the contents, as the beeping is getting louder. A bunch of clothes hangers and empty baby food jars later,  I see an old smoke alarm. It was beeping to let me know the battery was low and needed replacing. So, of course, I went to Wal-Mart and got a 9-volt battery for it, came back and replaced the battery, put it in the box, piled the hangers and all but one of the baby food jars on top, taped it up, and put it back up on the shelf.

quiet

 

I've seen a few blogs on sound and quiet topics lately. Instead of getting carried away writing comments, I thought I'd write an entry myself. Quiet. Living in a small town in Tennessee, you'd think it was very quiet. But it's more of a - I can't say suburban, but it's a residential neighborhood. The lot size is 1-2 acres, so we're not right on top of each other, but it's close enough to hear each other's cars, dogs, kids, etc. And close enough to traffic to hear sirens. After midnight, it's much quieter, but there are a lot of shift workers here, and young people, so there's some traffic on the street all night.

The street....it's very narrow, barely big enough for two cars, and a horrible curves that I don't get used to. I can't see around them to see who's coming, and I hate that. I would not have chosen the house to buy for that reason alone, but...people here learn to drive on those curves as young teenagers, and they don't have a problem at all. I learned to drive in the middle of downtown Tampa, which made me a good city driver, but when I'm in the mountains, I'll pull over when I have a chance to let the locals by. They were more understanding when I got here with my Florida plates, but I guess by the time you have local plates you should be able to handle these curves and hills. And since my accident, I'm afraid of what 'might' be coming over the hill. Like a huge yellow speeding school bus.

So, anyway, back to noise and/or the lack of it. I lived in a little beach town in Florida, close to St. Pete, where I heard gunshots most nights. I've lived in city and rural environments. The noisiest place I ever lived was also the most rural. There were no houses or people for almost a mile. I rented, but it was on several acres of land, and came complete with a swimming pool, a pond, and 20 head of cattle. At night, the sound was deafening. The frogs and toads at the pond. Oh my. With the windows open, you couldn't hear the television. And the cows loved to come up to the bedroom window and moo in the middle of the night. Nope, I don't know why.

Hi!

I can't believe it's been this long since I was here. I'm off all weekend, looking forward to seeing what everyone's been up to. Thank you so much for the medical comments.I'm feeling good right now. It's funny how for me, and probably for most of you, we become a part of each other's lives, even in a small way. Seeing certain things, a certain bird, or cattle, or a Canadian license plate...even plates from states that different friends on here live in, I automatically think of you. I was describing a certain kind of bird feeder that I want to make to Pat, and I said, "Like in Kimmy's pictures", and she immediately knew what I meant. Love you all!    Jan

Friday Movie

Pat and I went to see Nim's Island last Friday. It is so good. I dreamed of living on an island in a treehouse when I was growing up. I thought it would be the most wonderful thing. I didn't grow up on the beach, but it was only about 5 miles away. And as much time as I spent in trees, another few hours a day and I would have been living in one. So when I saw this movie, I cried for that little girl in me. I lost a lot of those dreams, and they just came flooding back with the movie.

And the grown-up me can totally relate to Jodie Foster's role as an agoraphobic writer. I fight agoraphobia at times, and sometimes it wins. But like her, I could go out to help someone. Undoubtedly. Especially a child.

Now the movie is very unrealistic, in many ways, but it's a movie, not a documentary. Kids will love it, you can take any age to this movie, it's got enough adventure to be exciting, but not anything that I think would bother even young kids. It's rated PG, but I can't think of why it's not G. I don't know anything about ratings anyway.

Here's a link:   http://www.nimsisland.com/

Technorati Tags: Nim's Island,movie

Happy Luna Moth

Hey, I caught a Luna Moth. Caught is probably not what I did. He was in front of a store on the hot concrete, not moving. I thought he was dead. I took some pictures of him, then I picked him up and he barely moved his wing. So I took him home and let him go. On the way home, I had him in a cardboard box, and he started to move a little, by the time I got home he was flapping his wings! I opened the box to let him down gently in the grass, and he flew away! He was Oh So Happy!

I'll send my photos later, but here's what he looks like:

 

Technorati Tags: Luna Moth,happy

 

Here's a link for him:

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/view_default.asp?curGroupID=2&source=&parkid=&fromWhere=&searchText=&allSpecies=&shapeID=977&lshapeID=0&curAbbr=&lgFromWhere=&curPageNum=1&lastView=default&lastGroup=2&lastRegion=&lastFilter=4&lastShapeName=&trackType=&curRegionID=2209&size=&habitat=&fruit=&color=&sortBy=family&viewType=default&curFamilyID=&regionSelect=Southeast&regionZIP=

Light Bulb

Again, we've gone from 79 degrees to 30 and snow within a few days. I've got to go cover some of the more tender blooms out there. Even the doggies have their coats on. I had no idea dogs liked clothing. All three love to wear clothes and will bring you a jacket to put on them. They need clothes because the groomer they went to has no idea what a puppy cut is. Nope, didn't know she didn't until the poor little shaking, shaved things came out from the grooming area. At least their hair's growing back in fast. I'm also thinking how plain the color white is. Bichons kind of look like cotton candy anyway, and Kool-Aid is totally non-toxic, and comes in all different colors, and doesn't stain as much as food coloring. Hmmmm.....

So, anyone had any nice cupcakes lately? LOL, sounds like a euphemism to me. But you know me well enough to know I really do mean cupcakes. Possibly with sprinkles. giggle  Jan

 

Fire Notes

Wet leaves don't burn. Only about 10% were wet. I thought the dry ones would burn and dry out the wet ones and they'd burn. Nope. Lots of smoke though. I left my window open. I think my smoke alarm doesn't work. cough cough cough         Jan

Spring's Here!

Hey, it's here. Spring! Flowers and birds and sunshine. Who'd a thunk it a month ago? It's in the 60's and sunny and so very beautiful. My computer is in front of my open window, there's sunshine on my bed (next to the computer in front of aforementioned window). If it didn't have my clean laundry on it, I'd lie down in the sun. That's an incentive to fold my laundry if I ever heard one!

I haven't been home much the past few days and had tons of housework to do today. The housemates left early and I've gotten just about everything done. Can NOT get anything done with them here. I'm going outside to play. I mean to work. I better rake those ol' leaves up. Right now.   Cya.    Jan

Perhaps an ADHD Day?

 

Okay, I'm not sure what happened. I have too many things going on to even list. I'm now eating lunch, and looking at the mess I've made. I have hundreds of books, assorted furniture to hold the books, a desk, lots of shelves, two computers and a twin bed on a high platform in my room. It is packed full. NOW, it also has plastic, newspapers, open paint cans, a roller and two brushes full of paint and a little tiny bit of room I've made next to a wall, with wet paint on it. Shhhh, no one else knows. I'm very happy. Maybe I've painted for so long, it takes the chemicals from paint on my hands soaking through to my bloodstream to feel happy. I'm sure my microbiology professor would agree that was biologically possible. (Probably agree I should be hospitalized. Immediately. And not for paint related issues, either.)

So, now I've got yet another project going on, nope didn't make a birdhouse yet, but the weather's prevented my setting my work area up outside for that. I do have 6 partial resumes made, and laundry going, and seeds planted in flower pots, and did I mention I took the door off the closet to make it easier to get in there? Hey, it's snowing pretty hard, and very windy. Not much sticking because it's been in the sixties. Where I live, it's about 1600 feet up, but it's a matter of about 40 minutes to be up where there's a couple of feet of snow. Maybe I could borrow a vehicle and drive up there. And then stop and play in the snow, and then I'd need a snack so I'd have to go into Mountain City and oh, there's the cutest little shop there, and and huh? Paint? Oh yeah. Gotta go paint now. I need a babysitter!!!!        jan   

Technorati Tags: adhd,paint,attention deficit disorder,rambling,Kingsport,northeast Tennessee