The Farmer’s Market in my town

I love the farmer’s market. If you have a market in your town, a real farmer’s market, you should go.

No, I’ve not started writing a travelogue, but maybe I could do that as a sideline … mmmmmmnnnnnno! The thing about my town’s farmers market is that I’ve lived in this town for 50 years, I know many people. I’m related to some of them. Going to market gets me caught up on current local events and gossip. Deals are made, ideas are generated, friends connect.

Oh, and I often get food there as well. Both to eat on the spot, and to take home for my pantry.

I may still be out there, but I’m working on being organized , and out there.

Up until I turned 49, my life seemed okay. I didn’t analyze it, I didn’t really pay it much attention, I just assumed it was okay. I thought it could be better, but whose life couldn’t, right?

It’s true, I’d had more than my share of jobs, and I couldn’t find a hobby that I liked well enough to stay with it, forsaking any others. And yes, there was room for improvement in my tax return filing skills. But I was okay.

In 2009 I became aware that I might have ADHD. Lots of research and one diagnosis later, I became a certified member of the ADHD tribe.

Shortly thereafter, in an effort to better my life, a prescription was written for stimulant medication, with my name on it.

All right, back to work, all of you. (By Rodw via Wikimedia Commons)

A while ago, I received an email from a reader discussing ADHD in the workplace. Her situation was that she was rejoining the outside workforce after having put in more than two decades in the service of running a household.

Further to this, she had only recently been diagnosed with ADHD.

She had started out in an entry level position, working cash in a big box store. But as is often the case with ADHDers, her performance in this structured position attracted attention and she was suddenly being cultivated for bigger and better things.

During her training for the new position, she was given the benefit of an evaluation. She heard the areas she had problems in were time management and focus.

What do I do next?

Perhaps that title should read “Why I can’t think at all?” … forget “straight.”

When I get up in the morning, my normal state of mind is rather a tornado. If I’ve got some stressful issues in my day, that normal state can be turned way up. Mostly, the tornadoes are focused when I’ve got things to deal with.

Sunday was like that for me. If you read Mondays post, you’ll know that I over extended myself, meh … a little. That was okay. Like I said, having things to deal with helps me focus.

Nothing to fear but being overwhelmed

About four months ago I started participating in a program called “Sounds,” a local monthly show of music and spoken word by amateur and professional artists.

The show consists of one musical act and one spoken word act each doing a set. Other musicians, poets and spoken word artists then take turns performing in an open mic, coffee house style.

F̶o̶c̶u̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ Focusing on a pill

I want to tell you about my current medication. It’s changed. It’s changed rather suddenly, but for reasons that grew subtly. And I’m happy about the change in some ways, but disappointed in others. And I’ve learned some things that I’ve found rather surprising.

Before we discuss this change, I want to say that emotionally biased opinions of my medication are not welcome. If you are planning on telling me I should or shouldn’t do something, I would caution you to consider that I am not telling you how to approach your treatment. I’m not telling you to take medication or not. I’m giving my opinion on the efficacy of medication.

Clara Hughes and Bell Canada say “Lets Talk”

As marketing schemes go, this was a good one. Bell, Canada’s telecommunications giant, has been ramping up to February 12th, choosing that day to put mental health in the limelight.

I know this brought them a great deal of publicity, but I don’t have a problem with that. The money they spent on this campaign could easily have gone to slick commercials and a cadre of spin doctors figuring out how to make saving a nickle look like something worth the money and effort needed to invest in getting signed up for that “save a nickle” program.

This may have been a mistake …

Wow, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day? Seems like that just happened 12 months or so ago. What? Are they having it annually now? You’d think I’d have noticed that …

Oh well, luckily, last year, I came up with a list of 5 ways to make your Valentine’s Day an ADHD success. And I put that list in a pile on my desk, a pile of lists, a pile of lists of important things, perhaps ways of making occasions successful or some such thing as that. Now where is it …

ADH Disorder

How do I conquer clutter with ADHD? That’s a very good question. We, those of us with ADHD, know all too well the trials of dealing with our disorder. And one of the more overwhelming parts of this disorder is, well, the disorder, the piles of things everywhere. Piles that seem, to the untrained eye, to have no order or definition at all. In fact, even to the eye of the ADHDer that made them, they might elude being defined.
They don’t call this a disorder for nothing, you know
The logic that caused this piece of paper to be placed on that corner of your desk, only to be covered by a scanner and three paper clips, a box that used to contain a dozen pens, two business cards, a digital audio recorder, two blank CD’s, a book and an empty coffee cup … is no longer evident. Even to me, the guy who piled the stuff there, there seems to be no sense.