Friday Morning

It’s a morning of self-care, now that I think about it. After I dropped Connor off at school, I drove to the salon to get my hair cut. After that, I had a little time to kill before having to be at my next appointment, so I opted to hang out here at Starbucks for a half hour instead of going home.

I haven’t had the occasion to sit at the laptop bar at a Starbucks, even though my local Bux has had one for years. It’s kinda super convenient that I can sit here and blog using my iPhone and my Bluetooth keyboard — positioned at a perfectly ergonomic height, by the way — while my Apple Watch is plugged in to charge via the USB port by my right elbow.

In a few minutes, I’ll head down the road to my next appointment: a New Patient Visit with a psychiatrist who can prescribe my ADHD meds. My GP has been the prescriber for all the brain meds I’ve tried over the years, but he confirmed at our last med check that he’ll be retiring within a year or two. I figured I’d rather transfer ownership of my prescriptions to a mental health professional so I’m not left scrambling at the last minute. Plus, while I do love my doctor, and he seems to be up to date on the latest pharmaceuticals, I suspect it would be in my best interest to have my brain meds prescribed by a brain expert.

Hopefully I haven’t spent too long tickety-tapping here — time to wrap things up and head five minutes down the road to meet my new psychiatrist.

Unpublished: 25 October 2021

I found this post sitting in my Drafts folder from over a year ago. Although it’s not quite finished, it’s still relevant, so I’m posting it the way I found it.

When my therapist asked me last week how I was doing, my answer was, “Meh.”

Then she proceeded to solidify a concept I’d been toying with for some time: the idea of maintenance vs. a mood boost.

She asked me when was the last time I did something that made me happy… and I didn’t have an answer right away. I had answers to most of her other self-care questions: my last workout was last Thursday, for example.

When I gave it some thought, though, the thing that had most recently made me happy was walking in the local Fall Festival parade with my karate dojo.

But only two days after that boost, I learned that a co-worker of mine had died unexpectedly in his sleep. He was three weeks younger than me, so it hit especially hard — people younger than me aren’t supposed to die of natural causes, much less pass in their sleep. It got me thinking about relationships, and mortality, and all the things I take for granted (including waking up in the morning).

My therapist reminded me that the profound losses and hardships of others doesn’t invalidate the day-to-day experiences in my own life, and made sure that I wasn’t minimizing my own emotions and reactions. That’s hard, though — with this reminder of our mortality, knowing that Greg’s world now has to go on without him, how can I continue to feel put out that I don’t have time for planting bulbs because the rain won’t quit and I have to make my son’s halloween costume? #firstworldproblems

Today’s Project: The Workbench

For once, I managed to take a Before picture to contrast with the After.

I had the itch to organize this afternoon, but couldn’t decide on a direction, so I gave Aaron a few options of things I’d been thinking of tackling. Of the tasks I listed, he chose the workbench in the garage.

Instead of my usual triage method — group like objects together, throw away the garbage, and collect the stuff I’ll need to put someplace else later — I worked from one end of the bench to the other, putting each item where it belonged as I came to it.

It took a couple of hours and multiple listens of the entirety of Wish (The Cure, 1992), but it got done, and done right.

Twitter Update: Unfocused

Sitting in my home office, staring at my laptop, wondering why it’s so hard to get focused this morning.

Realized I didn’t take my #ADHD meds yet. Glad this happened on a Work From Home day and not an In-Office day!

Now to keep myself on track until my meds kick in…