So I Married an ADDer

The Ballad of Mrs. Schanck

One of the benefits of having an ADD partner is that you can share your childhood memories with them over and over again. There are certain anecdotes of mine that Jen never remembers. I think she tunes me out when I'm speaking.

In 5th grade, I had a teacher named Mrs. Schanck. Tragically, her name was pronounced skank, which according to Wikipedia "implies sexual promiscuity, poor taste, personally degrading behavior and low socioeconomic class." Mrs. Schanck was in no way a skank. She was a wonderful teacher and I enjoyed her class.

Every time I mention Mrs. Schanck, Jen blurts out, "You had a teacher named Mrs. Skank?!??" And I say, "Yes, honey, I've told you that many times." "No you haven't! I would have remembered Mrs. Skank!" And so on.

In a way, it's irritating. But I like that memory lane is a two-way street around here.

 

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Let Them Know It's Christmas Time

The holiday season is upon us once again, and even though it started creeping into the public consciousness the day after Halloween this year, it's baffling to me that December hits this weekend.

Last year was our first holiday in our new house, and I had unrealistic expectations of emulating Martha Stewart. This year, I want to keep it simple. All we need to do is put up the tree.

Some people are appalled by artificial, pre-lit Christmas trees, but they're all I've ever known and, dammit, I like them. We bought ours last year and it's very easy to assemble. In fact, we planned to do it last weekend, after Thanksgiving. I brought the box up from the basement on Saturday and got out the ornaments and garland. But Jen didn't feel like putting up the tree after all, so we waited.

Sunday passed, and Monday. The tree box sat in the living room. Last night (Tuesday), Jen turned to me and said, "You want to do the tree?" I brewed a pot of coffee and ceremoniously placed my one nutcracker on the mantle (I'm trying to start a collection), but 10 minutes later, Jen had changed her mind. She wanted to play a board game instead.

The trouble with having an ADD partner at holiday time is that the tree may very well sit in its box in the living room for a week or more. Holiday cards go out at the last minute and often don't arrive at their destination before Santa Claus. And best of all, once the tree is up, it usually stays there til February.

 

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Happy Thanksgiving!

For your Turkey Day amusement, I share with you my favorite commercial:

Wishing everyone a stress-free, injury-free Thanksgiving!

CHADD: The Aftermath

We're back from the CHADD conference and settling back into reality. I've been playing catchup all week, which is a poor excuse for being a blog delinquent, but it's true.

The conference was a good experience. As Jen mentioned on her blog, this was our first time exhibiting at a conference. It was great to talk to people about Jen's book and our coaching toolkits, but ADD or not, conferences are exhausting! I'm still recovering.

It's always interesting for me to be surrounded by hundreds of ADDers. After 3 days, I really started to feel overwhelmed. And this time around, I didn't even have my fellow non-ADD spouse John MacKenzie to bond with! But we made some new friends and reconnected with old ones, so it was a lot of fun.

Still, as one of the few people at CHADD without ADD, I definitely felt like the odd one out. In the exhibit hall, they kept making announcements that so-and-so left their credit card somewhere, so-and-so's family is looking for them, etc. It was pretty funny. I managed to keep the booth (and our hotel room) organized, but by the end, I started to show signs of ADD myself. Instead of packing neatly, I just threw stuff in boxes (I'm still sorting through the aftermath in my dining room). And I lost a set of keys.

One thing I definitely took away from the experience was that I'm really glad to be working with ADDers. Everyone we met was so friendly, outgoing, and easy to talk to. ADDers have a nice energy about them. And they speak their mind, which is refreshing. Meeting so many effervescent ADDers at the conference makes me want to be less of a Bert and more of an Ernie. I would, however, like to find my keys.

Getting ready!

Jen and I are busy getting ready for the CHADD conference. As you can see from the above cat representing Jen, I have my work cut out for me. We have a booth in the exhibit hall, so if you'll be there, make sure to stop by and say hello!

 

Scooters!

Anyone remember elementary school gym class? Better yet, does anyone remember "scooters"? I don't know about your school, but my gym teachers would bust out the scooters whenever they had a hangover and couldn't muster the strength to referee a game of indoor soccer. So out came the scooters, and boy were we excited. It meant we got to sit on our butts for 45 minutes. Oh sure, the companies who sell these things claim they're "ideal for hundreds of indoor games to develop coordination and strength". And I'm sure they are...if you use them as part of an actual game and not just let the kids scoot around aimlessly, as we did.

I thought of scooters last night because Jen, as usual, was parked in front of the fireplace. She can't just build a fire and leave it be. She has to sit there and poke at it and stoke it with every piece of scrap paper she can get her hands on. And guess who has to fetch it for her? Me.

I understand not wanting to get up from a sitting position on the floor. But when I'm trying to watch Without a Trace, I don't want to dig through the recycling bin. So last night I had this brilliant idea to get her a gym class-style scooter.

When I told Jen about my scooter idea, she was very excited, and she also pointed out that scooters would be great for all ADDers, no matter what they're hyperfocused on. They could scoot around the house and not have to bother their partner to get stuff for them!

Now wouldn't a scooter make a great holiday gift for your ADDer?