A Day in the Life of an ADDer Feller

[Steve]

Well today as I was adding some comments to my "Still Alive and Kicking" blog I got to a point in realizing that I really should be turning the comments into a separate blog so here we go.

I do have to mention that in coming up with the title of this blog, I thought that an ADDer Feller was actually quite catchy and creative, however, where math and science are easy for me, I am not the best with words or spelling.

Thank God for Spell-Check and Google. So since I was not sure if feller was actually a real word, I Googled it, and it pulled up, The Free Dictionary by Farlex, which shows the meaning of feller to be a (1) a lumberjack, who is a person who fells trees, or it could be (2), a person who fells seams, which I guess would be a seamstress.

Now considering that a seamstress would be female and feller seemed to be a male, I decided to try and see if there was the word, seamster, which to me would at least be genderless and when I typed it in, Spell-Check came up showing that it was an invalid word. I then checked it out in The Free Dictionary by Farlex, and that did show the word seamster, which is a tailor, or a person whose occupation is making and altering garments.

If you go further down and look at the thesaurus it shows that feller is also a term for a boy or man so it does seem to mean that I would be using a correct word to call me a feller. Not so dumb after all I guess.

Of course Farlex was not showing as a correct word to Spell-Check however, when I type Googled, it as well shows up as a misspelling so what am I truly to believe? How can I possibly go on with all this stress and pressure? Is the past tense of Google truly Googled or not? LOL

So with all that in mind, before I even begin to go into the reason that I am writing this blog, I have to mention that I am continually let down by Spell-Check when depending on it to correct my spelling mistakes. How am I ever to get anything done when I can’t even rely on Spell-Check and I have to constantly double check everything?

Well, I guess, let me at least try to go on and let me try to get to my point, which by the way it is now 2:00 pm, which, it now has taken me, one hour to actually begin what I started to work on an hour ago at 1:00 pm, and I have yet to get back to writing my Christmas/Holiday cards, which is actually the goal I need to accomplish and not really this blog at all, however, I have ADD, so to not beat myself over the head, I just accept that and do my best. :-)

So here goes.

I am not really sure what all this blog will end up touching on, however, the basis of it, is, the day in a life of this ADDer Feller, well, I guess you have all figured out that this ADDer Feller is me.

Which by the way, I now realize that I have actually coined the new word, ADDer Feller, which I guess is really two words, so maybe the word needs to actually be ADDerFeller, which is gender non-specific, which I double checked and evidently I should have said, gender-neutral, which is the term for language which would show to be non-sexist and politically correct, which of course is my intent, so, here to and forever, now, an ADDerFeller is defined as any member of the ADDer World.

Now to be fair, if there are any lumberjack or seamster members in the ADDER World, they will now have the unique distinction of being ADDerFeller Fellers. :-)

Anyway, enough of that, I will now actually begin.

Just as every year, I have the intent to get my Christmas/Holiday cards out by Thanksgiving and every year I fail to achieve that goal which now being December 23rd, I have only mailed out two cards. I really hope I get the rest done today.

At 10 minutes to 11:00 am this morning I began by writing a comments back to Lizard, which is where I will begin. Jackie Gleason always said, for any of you old enough to remember. “And Awaaaaaaaaay We Go”, and so I will, by first including the original comments, and then adding the latest updates, which I hope you understand that at this point I have no idea where this day is going or what I may accomplish, in so being, I have no idea what I will be writing. Btw, make sure you click on the hyperlink to see the clip and then make sure you get back here to finish reading my ridiculous ramblings and don't pull an ADD moment on me and not come back here to complete this assignment. ROFL

[Beginning of Original Comments]

Hi Liza. I wish I had never started. You were very smart. Well today is the 23rd and I only mailed two cards. I hope I get the rest done today. It just does not seem possible that I am not finished but I guess ADD does have a lot to do with it. It is 10 of 11 am so lets see if I can actually get one done by 11:00. I will keep you posted.

Well it is now 11:25 and I just realized that I got stuck working on a different project and never wrote another card. I am going to try again and see if by 11:30 I can actually do it. This ADD thing really is ridiculous. This is exactly what happens with me every minute of every day. It is amazing to me that even knowing that I have ADD and knowing that I really need to focus on specific projects that I need to do, I still get lost and unfocused on my projects. I took an Adderall an hour ago. I guess it has not kicked in yet. This really does stink. Well now it is 11:27 so I better get to that card. I will try to keep you informed of my progress.

Ok well it is actually now 11:33 and I did finish another card and would have actually achieved my goal of 11:30 if I had not taken two minutes to leave my last note as well as I added and additional comment in the card to my friends which more or less said that I hope that we can get together in 2009. I stated that I was really sorry that I am so scattered and that I am going to make it my new years resolution. I hope I can keep that resolution. Well now I am going to 7-11 to buy a cup of coffee which I really need very ba....

....d. It is now 11:45 and as I was typing the word bad, my mother called to discuss what she was going to make for Christmas dinner and I told her not to go over board because she knows that I am not a big eater and then I had to get a lecture on the fact that I need to eat more and that I am not eating healthy and then I told her that I eat just fine and that on the news they just talked about that even being a little overweight is not healthy and they showed an example that for a man at 5 foot 10 inches he should weigh no more than 175 lbs and I happen to be 5 foot 10 inches and I range between 172 and 175 so I guess I must be eating enough and then she stated, that I am always tired, which is true, and I said that actually eating too much makes me more tired, and then she said oh yeah I guess you are right about that, and I still need that coffee REEEEEEEEEEEEEally bad. So now it is 11:50.

Just what I needed. More distractions, I love my mother but I really dread why I answer the phone because of the distraction and the conversations usually go on for quite some time unless I cut them off and say that I really need to do something. She calls or just stops by out of the blue on average twice a day. I feel bad that I don't give her all the time she wants from me however I have to balance the stress it causes me. I gave up years ago trying to get her to understand me and funny thing is that when a couple friends took me out to dinner the other night for my birthday and they included her as always, we were discussing ADD and I was telling my friends about ADDer World because my friends have an Autistic grandchild who they now believe has ADHD as well. It was just the four of us at dinner so my mother heard the entire conversation and I was explaining everything that I had learned about how ADD had affected me all of my life and even made a comment how my mother really doesn't get it but it all seemed to have just gone over her head which is exactly why I had to eventually give up trying with her. So now it is 12:05 and I am going to try to get to 7-11 for my coffee and then hopefully get some more cards done. Why did it take me 20 minutes to write this last paragraph? I do tend to try to get my words right and I even get off track with my thoughts as I write things which is probably more about how ADD affects me.

So here I will say, as did Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator: "I will be back" and I will let you know my progress. Wish me luck.

(While I was gone to the 7-11, Lizard commented back “Good Luck!”)

Thanks Liza.

Ok so now it is 1:00, and "I am back", without Arnold however, from 7-11 and drinking my coffee and have 4 more cards written. I have decided to put this all in a new blog instead of adding more to the comments here. Thanks guys for caring.

[End of Original Comments]

It is now 3:00 pm and I am going to post what I have written to this point as I am really exhausted and need to take a break, rest, and hopefully write some more cards.

Hopefully I will continue the saga later.

Until I blog again,
Your friendly neighborhood ADDerFeller, Steve

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so now I am back for a few moments and it is now 7:40 pm. Since 3:00 pm I have accomplished a few things, but still have not completed writing my cards. I walked my dog, read and responded to a couple of comments that you guys left for me. Thank you all. I added some :-), LOL's, and ROFL's, to the original posting, drank some more coffee, wrote out 4 more cards which now adds up to a total of 6 out of the 30 or so I had to write, which were done by 5:00 pm or so which I ran to the post office hoping that at least there was a chance that those could make it by tomorrow.

I thought the last pick up was 5:30 pm however as it turns out the last pick up was 5:00 pm so that was a waist of gas and 20 minutes of time that I am sure I would have put to good use toward finishing the cards. :-) And I did actually lay down for about a half hour to get that rest that I so badly needed.

Oh, and I got my mail from the mailbox which had a few more cards from people who will not be getting theirs from me on time, which by now I am sure that they have realized that.

One of the cards was from my best friend growing up and his wife, who wrote, and I quote:

"Are you alive???

Merry Christmas, if you are, I don't have your mom's address, tell her we said Merry Christmas.

Eric and Dawn"

We are lucky, these days, if we talk once a year, when I will try to call him on his birthday in May, and the card exchange at Christmas. When we do talk though, it is always like it was just yesterday and there are no hard feelings that we are not in contact more.

He lived two houses away from me growing up, and were together every day of our lives until we were 18, and then I moved away to college, then for work and he got married, but even though our lives went separate ways, we both do our best and we both understand, even though he does not know I have ADD.

Last year I did not get the cards out and when I called him on his birthday he actually did mention it. I was not surprised but I did feel bad about it.

So this year even though he wont get my card on time, he will, I hope, actually get one this year, if I can finally get the darn things finished. I am glad that I got his card today, in that his was, almost not on time, as well, and that now when I do get to writing his, I can begin my card with:

Yes I am alive... and Merry Christmas to you both. :-)

If you think about it, it is kind of funny that my last posting was titled: "Still Alive and Kicking", because I often wonder if people are questioning that. Bryan talks about that in his book, about people with ADD, having a hard time staying in touch with friends.

So now it is 8:15 pm and I am going to see if I can get some more cards done and what ever ones I do get done, I am going to try to drive a half hour to the main post office where I believe they have a midnight pick up. I am probably wrong about that as well but either way if I do get some more to the post office tonight that will be a step in the right direction.

Bye for now.

----------------------------------------------------
Well it is now 5:30 pm on the 24th. Merry Christmas Eve to everyone.

So as usual. This ADDerFeller did not accomplish his goal and actually after the last update at 8:15 pm last night I decided I was waaaaaaaaaaaaay toooooooooooo tired to do anything except make the decision that when and if the rest of the cards get done they will and if not then oops.

I actually did think that maybe I would get them done today, however, guess what. NOT.

In fact I have not done any as of yet and I have decided that at this point it seems pretty likely that they would not be received before Christmas any way. Well, I think it certainly goes to show that people with ADD like me must be pretty darn intelligent to have figured that one out.

With that in mind I have decided that I would make a new goal, which is that my goal is to make sure that the remaining cards are not finished or received on time. Yea, finally I have set an achievable goal.

Any wagers on whether or not I actually do achieve my new goal?

So this is the end of this pathetic saga of this ADDerFeller's normal day. Thanks for tuning in.

[Jessica]

It baffles me how much stress and energy we put into christmas cards when they ultimately end up in a box in the closet. I give everyone their cards at once (yes multiple cards Christmas, Birthday, Mom's day, Anniversary, Dad's day, etc. I buy them in bulk from a wholesale website and when I know I am going to see the person, I fill all their cards and give them with a smile and a joke. I'm not sure if anyone has gotted upst about it, no one has said anything. It works best if the card is funny.

[DANA]

Hey, Bryan, thank you for posting our ADDer Feller, Steve's, Christmas card post, again! I never grow tired of reading it and it most definitely is one sure way to bring a smile upon my face. (Other's, too!)

Steve, you will not believe what happened to me last night when I attempted to re-read this post. After I finished reading this post (laughing all the way!), I began typing my newest comment when suddenly, OH NOOOOOO, A FULL BLOWN "ADDER MOMENT!"

That's right.....While reading about your continual interruptions and how you were trying so hard to send out your Christmas cards on time, my kids began to interrupt me. Instantly, a flood of distractions got me side tracked! (Don't you hate that!? Grrrrrr!)

I stopped typing to get my 11 year old daughter into the shower. Before my daughter stepped into the shower, she said, "Would you make me some macaroni & cheese?" (Sure, why not? At this point, I am already distracted so I may as well continue going in 10 different directions!)

Like the cool mom that I am, I immediately went into the kitchen to boil some water on the oven to prepare the macaroni noodles. After I placed the pan of water onto my stove, I remembered that I had a load of wet clothes that were still in the washing machine. (Oh, noooo, the never ending laundry! Is there EVER an END to all the laundry???)

Trying so very hard to stay on task (and totally forgetting that I needed to finish my comment back on ADDer World!), I walked downstairs to take the wet laundry out of the washing machine and to place it into the dryer.

However, before I finished, I found myself sidetracked, again! This time I spent time chatting with my 18 year old son, placed some dry laundry into a pile to take upstairs and I finished putting the wet clothes into the dryer. Since I was already doing laundry, I figured that I may as well put another load of dirty laundry into the washing machine to keep things rolling smoothly so off I went to start up a new load to be washed. (Have I shared with you how much I DETEST laundry?)

Finally, I managed to walk back upstairs with an arm full of dry laundry and I put the clothes away. Then I hurried over to my computer to finish typing my comment to Steve, but I was interrupted, again! (Now I am very irritated!)

This time is was the water furiously boiling on the stove. (Oh, yeah, how could I forget that I was supposed to make my daughter macaroni & cheese?) I walked into the kitchen to put the noodles into the boiling hot water to cook. I forced myself to stay right there to stir the noodles continually so they would not turn into mush! (As an ADDer gal, I am known for impulsively walking away from whatever I am cooking to later discover it had burned or got ruined!)

By now, my 11 year old daughter is out of the shower, dried off, dressed in her pj's and waiting patiently for her macaroni & cheese, my 14 year old daughter is ticked off at the 11 year old for switching the TV station and my 18 year old son is asking me if he could have some macaroni & cheese. I finished making the mac & cheese, prepared a few bowls for my kids and called to them that it was ready. (Thank goodness! Now can I PLEASE get back to what I was originally doing?!)

I hurriedly walked back to my desk with full intentions of finishing my comment to Steve, our friendly neighborhood ADDer World Feller. Once I got into the groove of it, I was really on a roll typing, laughing at the funny idea's that instantly popped into my head and spending at least 10-15 minutes getting all wrapped up in my own little tangent!

Just at the moment in which I completed my entire comment (and trust me, it was a long, drawn out hysterical comment!) , I clicked the computer button to add my new comment when out of the blue, for no reason at all, my computer suddenly went on the FRITZ!

OMG! You can only imagine how frustrated I felt when it became obvious that my computer was having technical difficulty and I could lose every single thing that I finally finished typing! (This is when I wish that I were computer savvy......Or at least MORE patient......Or had the ability to NOT over react by screaming out a few "choice words!")

Trying to not lose my temper, I began to "troubleshoot" in effort to figure out what was wrong with my computer. Unfortunately, by now it is very late, hours have passed by with one distraction after another and I am feeling quite frustrated. (Do ADDer moments wear you out to literally exhaust you mentally & physically?)

WHY DOES EVERYTHING FOR ADDER'S HAVE TO BE SO MUCH WORK!?

Regardless that this was a post from one year ago and I had already re-read Steve's hysterical Christmas card blog countless times, I was sincerely disappointed that I was not going to be able to add my comment or even save everything that I typed. (Sniff! Sniff!)

So here it is.....an entire day later and I am back at the computer, again! I may have been distracted and constantly interrupted last night, but I REFUSE to allow myself to not complete the task that I had intentionally set out to finish! As I always say, KEEP ON KEEPING ON!

What I have come to learn on this cold Autumn afternoon is that when I do make up my mind to do something, I STICK WITH IT and GET IT DONE! (Sure, I may experience serious distractions, I may end up getting sidetracked over a dozen times, I might get extremely frustrated in the process, but as an ADDer, I will NOT allow bothersome distractions, interruptions and crazy mishaps to PREVENT me from completing my project!

Perhaps, I may be just a regular ADDer gal who impulsively finds myself running in 10 different directions, completely caught up in my own creativity, excited about the new idea's that flow smoothly from my mind, challenged with my short-term memory loss, ticked off that simple tasks take me WAY TOO MUCH TIME to complete or experience moments of little "HISSY FITS" (Is that even a "real" word?) when I struggle with one obstacle after another, but as I ponder a day in the life of an ADDer Feller, with a huge grin on my face, I am confident that somehow and someway EVERYTHING will work out alright.

[Steve]

Hi Dana. Thanks. I hope you are doing well. I am so glad you did re-read it and comment because I have not been on AdderWorld much lately with lots of things going on with me. When I got notified of your comment in my regular email I came here and re-read it myself. I have to admit, it really is pretty darn funny. And by the way, I never did get the rest of my cards out in the end. Not even my best friend Eric so the poor guy does not know if I am alive or not. I guess he will find out when I call him May 29th on his birthday. :-)

[DANA]

Steve, I can't help, but re-read this entire post because it was the most funniest, entertaining, hysterical post on ADDer World! LOVED IT!

[Lizard (aka, Butthead)]

gator is fine southern food almost as soem good frog legs and lots of bayou and voodoo beer made in New Orleans. I have a ton of storys about gator adventures and stuff that bites m stings and maims you from my southern living days! I would take a gator anyday over fire ants and chiggers, oh yeah and rattlers!

[Steve]

Oh my God Liza that is horrible. I am glad you able to help though. I definitely keep my distance and back in the 80's I lived in Hilton Head SC and I lived on a canal that had tons of gators that would lay out in the yard. I never had a close encounter but I always worried about it.

By the way, they really are good eat'n. Gator tail really does taste like chicken. :-)

[Bryan Hutchinson]

Hurry Steve add ADDerFeller to http://www.wikipedia.org/ YOU ROCK!

[Lizard (aka, Butthead)]

Gators, funny you should mention that because I have a story that happened in alabama with grandaddy gator. I had to help T-boy trap one the twisted a guys arm off at the shoulder, it was going for his dog when they were in the water together. We had to capture it, kill it and give it to the coroner so they could cut it open, and now that dead gator sits stuffed in the Birmingham supervisors office, so yeah I know a thing or 3 about gators, the tails are yummy too.

[Steve]

Sorry Liza. I am with Dana on the Eggnog. I love it and eggnog ice cream. Yum
We have gator catchers here in Florida. Bet you don't work a lot with them.
That would be funny Dana. Do you think she really did bring you home in a Christmas stocking or was she just kidding? So are you a Sag or Cap? You are really on the cusp there I think.

[DANA]

MMMMM..... This festive eggnog is soooooo delicious! Anyone care to join me?

Steve, you were born one week before me! My nephew Kevin's birthday is the exact same day as yours. Interestingly enough, Kevin was diagnosed with ADHD just a few years ago. He is extremely talented in music and art! My birthday was on the 21st. My mom told me that instead of bringing me home from the hospital in a warm blanket, she brought me home in a Christmas stocking!