An ADDy Day

Does it make a difference to anyone other than me whether all the letters are capitalized or not? I miss my old blog. I wish they had remained more user friendly. I had total html control. I didn’t have size limitations. I didn’t have “Blocks.” If I wrote poetry, it wasn’t shaded gray. I could change fonts. I could make tables with any background I want. ::sigh::

I wonder . . . Can I preformat the font? Nope. And the whole block looks better on my edit page than on the actual blog post. The “enlarged” photo reverts back to normal when posted. That’s ok, but what’s with the line justification without consideration to words, and the gray background?!?!?!? Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggghhh!

What did I plan to post when I opened the blog??? Beats me. So ADDy!

I don’t use the H because I’m definitely not physically hyperactive. (Wish I were.) However, mentally I am hyperactive and today it would need to be ADHD. My thoughts are jumping around so fast I can’t keep up. I simply can’t remember this fast. My memory needs a bit of reflection to retain something. Thoughts are like zip files, holding more than written or spoken words in the same spacetime, but I don’t get enough time to open them all. By the time I recognize them, they’re gone.

Then I was reading an article by an ADHD guy about ADHD and messiness. Yes. I am a walking tornado of both thought and material. For him it’s once he’s done with something, it ceases to exist for him. It’s almost the same for me. For me it’s more procrastination. What I’m doing “now” always feels more important, so I’ll get to that later. Sometimes I do, in a reasonable time. Sometimes not. I am so blessed to have a husband who recognized (way before we knew it was ADD) that it’s simply how my brain works and not laziness. Iqbal habitually picks up after me. (He used to be very fussy, so he also started doing the dishes after dinner rather than wait for me to get to them at 10 pm or the next day, and has done them for over 45 years now.) He’s not as fussy as he used to be, so our house is not as tidy as it used to be. We still manage to keep it reasonable. He’s a tidier. I’m a cleaner. Sometimes cleaning and/or tidying is what I’m/we’re doing “now.” (Not right now, though.)

The most difficult thing for me is cleaning out the areas that have become junk areas. Some of it is “stuff” I need to go through to determine what, if anything, I need to keep. Too much is “stuff” I plan to use for sewing and crafts “someday.” It’s very hard to let go of some plans and I often do use some of it. But I can thin. A lot is stuff Iqbal knew he shouldn’t throw away, but didn’t know what to do with. That’s the easiest to deal with. I usually know where it goes. I need to be able to see what’s what, though.

These junk areas (the sunny room in particular) are currently my main frustration. It was a pleasant little room. Then, as we sorted through other rooms, it became a spot for the “stuff” we didn’t know how or want to deal with at the time. It’s also the sunny room where I overwinter some garden potted plants. There is no space to open the various bins to see what’s in them until it’s warm and dry enough to set things outside as we work. Because I can’t yet get that room cleared out, I can’t get my sewing room cleaned and rearranged. Well, I can do some cleaning, and I will. But, I need to get the desks (junk collectors in their own right) out of there and move my sewing counter so I don’t feel like I crammed in when I’m using the machines. Once the sunny room is cleared out, there will be room in there for the art and computer desks and maybe a comfy chair along with the tables and chests that are and will remain there. Maybe a wee bit crowded in winter with the plants, but workable. Then the sewing room will be roomier. After that, all I’ll need to work on is the sewing and craft storage room. The hardest thing there will be getting shelves put into the cabinet without enough of them.

It’ll be a pleasant domino effect–I hope!!

Then I need to drill into my mind that I need to tidy up EVERY night in the problem areas, those spots that will collect “stuff” even without my tornado effect. I’ll also need to make a regular habit of clearing out the drawers and cupboards Iqbal uses to “tidy” up. For him, it’s all about what you can see. If he can’t see it, artificial life could be developing in a drawer or cupboard and he wouldn’t care. Great for unexpected guests, but bad for organized cupboards and drawers.

I used to have a very messy desk when I was a mortgage clerk in the bank. Others who needed what I was working on quickly learned to call me from break or lunch to retrieve something. I could generally go right to my desk and immediately pull out the right document(s). If they first tried to find things themselves, they rarely could and then it would take me some time, too, because things were no longer where I put them. And every day when the bank closed, EVERYTHING was filed and put away where it belonged. No junk drawers or file baskets. It was a great system for me. It’s harder to implement at home, but I’m going to try.

But, of course, I spent half my afternoon writing this rather that doing what I can in a problem area. Oh, well. I want to write more in this blog, too. And in my journal. And do more painting and cut & pasting. And make more computer art using more than GIMP. And more reading. And some writing. If I pick one thing a day and stick to it, that’s a week. But gardening season is upon us. And I want to do more of both hand and machine embroidering. And quilting. And . . . Well, you see my dilemma. Probably yours, too, in some degree and/or form.

What does it mean for someone who doesn’t believe in time, not to have enough of it?