Well, hello there.
I was having a conversation with a friend last week, one in which we were getting to The Real Meat of It All, she stopped me mid-sentence and said, "You do know there is a very real possibility you have A.D.D., don't you?"
No, G, I didn't know. Huh.
It got me thinking. About why I get so many ideas but forget get distracted never follow through I don't always manage to flesh them out. Why it's so hard for me to stop eating sugar call my grandparents remember to send Christmas cards keep up with some things and abandon others painting the living room blog regularly knit a pair of socks every week for a year.
I don't know. It might be real. It might not. It doesn't really matter. What does matter is finding out how to re-train the brain. That's definitely real. Sheesh. I've always been a list maniac (although I'm quite sure it doesn't count when you forget where you left the list) and I really am a hard worker, but I need to trick myself into developing a few more successful habits. I'm trying out egg timers, rationing the Cruising of the Interwebs, cleaning up bits of my workspace one afternoon at a time, shooting for good sleep every night....it's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress.
Hey, look! Sailboats!
Ahem.
There are also some really big things going on in my life right now. Nothing I can't handle (and nothing bad,) but lots of transition going on up in here. And many of these things are making it extra difficult for me to concentrate. It's hard not to beat myself up about falling behind or getting distracted, but every day it's a little easier.
So instead of forcing it ("it" being rigorous levels of efficiency and total world domination), I've been doing my best to entertain myself with really fun stuff while I'm not organizing and re-structuring my life. That saying "work hard, play hard"? My personal mantra. I've been knitting a little, reading a lot, putting up food (pickled asparagus!), spending time with friends, jumping in the lake and doing the best that I can to Be Here Now. I think it's working out splendidly.
I spent this weekend, as I do every first weekend in June, with my college roommates Meghan and Sara at a cottage on the lake in Northport. It feels so good that, even after 12 years of friendship, we can flow into our relationship so well. I mean, we're really different--from each other and the people we were when we moved away from Holland in May of 2002--but somehow, after this weekend, it doesn't feel like it. Maybe it's because I feel like I really, really know myself. Better than I ever have. And they get me.
Of course, we have doughnuts. Doughnuts will always be the tie that binds.
We spent our short time together talking and eating and laughing and browsing for used books and walking on piers and talking and eating and laughing some more. So nice.
* * * * *
And, because I am a master of procrastination and well-versed in The Art of Shifting Priorities, last week I created a shiny new website to share with friends and family my summer bucket list: to swim in Lake Michigan every single day. Every day for the 99 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, I will seek out the Big Water and jump in it. I'm eight days into the program and rockin' it.
It's a simple concept, but I figured it was worthy of its own space here online. A space that I am super, super proud of. Funny thing about web design: the more websites you build, the easier they are to create. This bad boy only took me about four days. (I have to add that I would be nowhere without Instagram.) You can also check out the Facebook fan page, if you're into that sort of thing.
It's kind of extreme, especially last week when it was in the 50s almost every day. But you know me. I'm kinda into weird rules. As Sara said to me this weekend, "Of course you are. You're either all in or not at all. That's how you've always been, Wass."
Funny. I thought I was the only one who knew.
