My ADD Brain

The more I've learned about having ADD, the more I've learned about myself.

I have personality traits that some might call behavioral traits (okay, they call them problems, but I'm working on being positive here.)

One of those "traits" (personality or behavioral, you choose) was a point of discussion last week.  I was told that I'm too aggressive in conversations and that I cut people off.  I thought about that comment a lot this weekend and tried to remember instances. 

I've learned (by reading too many books on the topic) that a person with ADD may be considered abrupt or short because our brains have already finished your sentence for you. We don't think that we cut you off, because in our brains, you were already done. We may even think that we paused for a moment before we spoke.  

One of our other "brain traits" is the ability to lose track of what we were saying in the middle of sentence. But we ADD people are tricky because we won't let on that we've lost our train of thought, we'll just keep talking until we re-link with the thought and get back on track. We are the kings & queens of the run-on sentence. 

Unless, of course, in the middle of that run-on sentence, you distract us with a shiny object or small, furry rodents. 

So, I apologize to those whose sentences I cut-off or interrupt. You may take it as being rude. I like to think of it as being simpatico with my co-workers. 

Saying goodbye to someone I never met

For the last twelve or so years, my phone number was 612-730-XXXX.

And for the last twelve or so years, someone named Megan had the 651 version of my number (she was Saint Paul to my Minneapolis). When I got a phone call from one of Megan's friends, I would simply tell them that Megan's number started with 651, not 612.

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Even when they didn't say anything, I knew when it was one of her friends. I'd answer my phone, "This is Elizabeth" and instead of having someone on the other end start the conversation, I would hear an "um" or "ah" and that would be my clue. I would ask, "are you calling for Megan?" and they would pipe up and say "yes, is she there?"  They would always sounded a bit surprised when I explained the phone number issue.  I think when I asked if they were calling for Megan, they jumped to the conclusion that since I knew Megan, I must just be someone at her house who picked up the phone. Those were the ones who would sound confused as I explained the mix-up.

Megan got some of my calls, too. Once, I had set up my work phone to forward to my cell phone, only I didn't use the area code, just the 7 numbers. Poor Megan ended up getting lots of my calls for a couple of days. And these were people who thought they were calling my office, nothing close to the 730 number.

My favorite time was when I answered my phone and after I said hello, the voice on the other end got quiet, so I assumed it was someone calling for Megan, so I asked, "Are you trying to reach Megan?" The voice on the phone slowly replied, "No, I am Megan..." She was in Minneapolis and was calling home to check her voice mail. She forgot to dial the area code. We had a good laugh and a short chat.

So I'd like to take a moment and say goodbye to Megan. May my 612 number be re-assigned to someone just as nice as me.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

I really, REALLY had to have an iPhone. All the other kids had 'em and they were, I was sure, all the really cool kids or the smartest kids or in someway superior to me. 

Once I had an iPhone, it would be the great equalizer and I would be just as cool, smart and maybe even, equal to their superiority.

So, in November of 2009, when my Sprint never-ending two year contract was done, I marched right into the AT&T store to purchase my iPhone 3GS. Only they didn't have in stock. And each time I checked back, they still didn't have any in stock. 

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Two weeks into this exercise in futility, they came clean; said they rarely get any in and told me if I went to an Apple store, I would most likely be able to buy a phone that day. My quest for the iconic iPhone was complete and there was peace and joy in the kingdom. 

So why did I deactivate my iPhone yesterday and cancel my AT&T contract? Mostly because I was spending far too much money a month for the bells and whistles of an iPhone. 

I've been thinking about this for awhile. A couple of months ago, a co-worker of mine talked about how little she was using her iPhone for phone calls (me, too) and that she was planning on dumping her iPhone and getting a pay-as-you-go phone and an iTouch. 

That conversation really planted the seed. 

Two weeks ago I attended a conference at the Sprint World Headquarters. While there, I started hearing about what I could save with a much simpler phone. And since I've been looking at ways to save money, I just decided it was time to do it. 

Oh, there's one more thing I should admit. I was actually paying for two phones on my AT&T plan. I was a single woman on a family plan. 

The iPhone was my Twin Cities 612 number while the second phone was my Southern Minnesota 507 number. I've had the 612 number for over 12 years, so most people would think that I would keep that number. 

They would be wrong. 

Monday, I marched into the Sprint Store and got a new Android phone for my 507 number. Yesterday, I stopped by the AT&T store and cancelled my contract. I'll give credit to Kyle at the AT&T store, he was very accommodating to someone who walks in and announces she's there to cancel her contract. He didn't try to talk me out of it or offer me some deal. He respected my decision and in less that 5 minutes my iPhone 3GS was magically transformed into my iTouch 3GS. (an iPhone in a permanent state of airplane mode) 

I'm slowly getting my new phone figured out, but if you call me in the next couple of days and I don't answer quickly, it's because I'm trying to figure out how to answer the darn thing. 

Stars on my ceiling

I am thrilled to say that I have an offer on my condo! It sucks that it is going to be a short sale, but at least it will be one less thing hanging over my head. If you're not familiar with a short sale, it's when what you owe is higher than what the property is valued at. Think of my mortgage as Shaquille O'Neal and the selling price as Kristin Chenoweth. 

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I had a training conference this past weekend in Bloomington, so I stayed at the condo. It hasn't felt like my place since I moved most of my stuff out last fall. However, I realized that there are going to be some parts of living at that place that I will miss. 

The kitchen is huge and not galley-like. There is even space for my solid oak dining room table. I'll miss the character of my kitchen with its wine theme. I love the walls in the kitchen because I "mudded" them and they look very old world Italian-villa-like. I also have great memories of mudding the walls with two of my dear choir friends, Terri and Lisa. 

I will not miss the pink counter tops in the kitchen or the 1980s mauve carpet that covers the majority of the floors. 

I will not miss the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the living room. Yes, the mirrors made the room appear bigger but I really didn't enjoy when I was appearing bigger. The truth is over-rated. 

I think the one thing I will miss the most are the stars that I painted on my bedroom ceiling with glow-in-the-dark paint. It was supposed to duplicate the stars in the sky during the Winter. I painted them on the ceiling in about 1998 and they still shine as brightly as the day I painted them. I won't be able to duplicate this in my new place since I'll be renting. It was always kind of comforting to feel like you're sleeping under the stars without that pesky nature ruining it. 

I may not be able to paint stars on my ceiling, but I can see the real stars outside of the cities. There's just no duplicating that. Even with glow-in-the-dark paint.

The Golden Squirrel Award Rides Again

Distracted doesn't even begin to cover my life in the past six weeks.  There's been plenty of travel for work and skating along with some rather challenging life decisions that have kept me away from the blog. 

There is one thing that I know about myself; when my life is feeling out of control, I don't write or journal anything and that creates this vortex of not writing and not feeling in control that goes on incessantly.  I need to have the Moonstruck Cher slap me and tell me to "snap out of it!" 

So I'm back to start writing again. I have to - this is like therapy for me. 

My diet is totally off track and I haven't been working out. I'm running out of clothing that fits and I don't want to buy larger sizes (because I'll only be wearing them a short time because my diet starts tomorrow! - Ha!).

The biggest distraction has been my search for housing. I made the decision a couple of months ago that I had to move out of my sister's basement before I was a size 20. I blame her great cooking and the endless supply of Little Debbie Nutty Bars.  

I haven't had to do an apartment search for many years and I had never done one outside of the metro area. I was spoiled by the abundance of apartments in the Twin Cities area and the guidebooks that help you find them. The Rochester area lacks both. 

I started with an Internet search and found out that "luxury" means expensive and small, but with underground, heated parking.  I already knew from my years on St. Paul's Grand Avenue that "classic" means it's an old apartment with several coats of paint covering all light switches and outlets. 

I toured three beautiful luxury townhome rentals, all out of my price range, but so convenient to work that I was trying to rationalize signing a lease.  One of the three advertised "resort-style living" with lots and lot amenities at top dollar.

I started contacting realtors to see if they had properties that had been on the market and not moving that they might want to rent out. My brother-in-law has connections in the construction industry because of his plumbing business. He checked with a couple of his buddies and found me a two bedroom townhouse for $725 a month! Wow! It was a 55+ community, but they had some flexibility.  Unfortunately, when I drove past the place, there was a LARGE banner on the side of the garage that read "Elderly Rental Townhomes." Elderly??!! Who is doing their marketing? I know 90-year-olds who don't want to be called "elderly." Crossed that one off my list. 

Then a co-worker suggested searching for property management companies.  I did and I found all new places not on any other lists. I found a house three block from the office that was a bit higher in price, but what I would save on parking and gas easily made up the difference.  There was also a beautiful classic apartment five blocks away from the office that had hardwood floors and parking included, but neither the house or the classic apartment had a washer/dryer in the unit. Deal breaker!

And none of the place I had looked at allowed dogs. Cats were fine, but dogs weren't allowed. I don't have a dog, but I want to get one.  I don't understand why cats are allowed when they stink up the inside of a place and dogs generally don't. (news alert: I'm not a cat person)

Finally, I found a two-bedroom condo for rent that is on the bus line, has a washer/dryer in the unit, attached heated garage and allows dogs. I found out today that they accepted my application and starting July 8th, I will have a new home! Yeah!!!

So now this distraction is done and the new "getting ready to move" distraction will start. 

And oh, yes, that little detail of selling my St. Paul condo...

Kansas

I'm in Kansas City for a Ragan Conference on mobile communications and it just happens to be Tornado week in this area of the country. Last day of conference at the Sprint World HQ and the second to the last session before heading to the airport, when a buzzing over the PA was followed by warning sound and a voice telling us that a tornado warning has even issued for this area. The same announcement kept repeating every 20 seconds and was starting to get on everyone's nerves. Luckily we all had mobile devices to monitor the outside activities. BUT if you had AT&T, you were out of luck as I'm sure Sprint had AT&T signal blocking technology around the campus. It seems that a storm touched down about 12 blocks away from here and We spent about 40 minutes in the bunker. It turned out to be an interesting way to network. Did I mention I'm looking forward to going home? - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Basement of Sprint World HQ