My partner Jen had a challenging week, to say the least. I have been out of commission recovering from minor surgery, so I've been laid up and stoned on codeine. Jen has been taking very good care of me. She drove me to the surgical center and managed to find parking on the street (which is not easy in Manhattan), and she dealt with my doctors while I was coming out of anesthesia and blabbering like a crazy person. Since I haven't been able to move around much, Jen has been doing all of the housework.
Now, ADDers and housework do not get along. I have yet to meet a single person with ADD who willingly keeps up with household demands (some can do it unwillingly). Jen is unique in the sense that she has virtually no clutter -- she created systems for her paperwork and her "stuff" long before I came into the picture, fueled by years of not being able to find anything. So clutter is not a problem in our house (if it is in yours, Jen has a brand new workgroup called Clutter Busters starting this week). Our problem is the kitchen.
I do not, can not, and will not cook. I have tried. Oh, how I've tried. Everything I've made has been burned to a crisp. I get so bored standing there waiting for the food to be done that I turn up the heat to make it cook faster. And cook faster it does. Jen, on the other hand, is an incredible cook, thanks to her ADD creativity and willingness to experiment with different flavors and ingredients. She refuses to follow a recipe, but she does a great job on her own (except for the time she made blueberry pork chops, but we won't go there).
Jen's cooking always turns out great, but she makes a huge mess in the kitchen every night. Since I don't mind cleaning, it's my job to undo the damage. I have been washing dishes every night since I was 12 years old, so that's not a big deal. The difficulty comes when I have to get tomato sauce off the wall, or grated cheese off the windowsill, or stray broccoli out from behind the stove. I have learned to take these things in stride.
But where was I this weekend? Oh that's right, doped up on painkillers watching Liza Minnelli. Poor Jen had to clean the kitchen all by herself. I knew she was dreading it, and I had a lot of sympathy for her. The whole time she was in the kitchen, this is all I could hear:
Crash. Bang. Shit! Crash. Oh, fuck! Bang. Crash. Son of a bitch! Splat.
Like I said, ADDers and housework don't mix. But she really came through and did a great job.
Comments