Current WIPs

**I came across this post from 9/13/2010. Even my new blog has a drafts build-up. Le sigh.**


These are a few of my current Works In Progress. I'll update one or two of them on Wednesdays. I'm hoping this will help me track my progress (goals have to be measurable, right?). We'll see how far I've come in a few months.


When I need to get back to an e-mail I mark it as unread. Sometimes I'll read and then mark it as unread again several times. Every few months I go back and delete these e-mails (or I'll just read them and leave them that way). 60 seems to be my limit before it's really bothering me.

I also save passwords as replies to companies but then never send them. This way I can just search my draft box for that company when I need the password but have forgotten it I don't have 40 passwords so there are probably a few e-mails hiding in there that were supposed to be send. I accidentally press SAVE instead of SEND more often than I'd like to admit.

PICTURE OF FLO

Several months ago I had $100 set aside for yarn. I bought several skeins of yarn, all of which I'd been in love with for months (even years!). I spent a few months just enjoying actually owning the yarn. Then we spent some time organizing it (and the rest of our office closet) so I spent some time owning organized yarn. But now it's time to use some of it (because I can't buy any more until I've used some of what I already have). This project from Knitty.com shouldn't take more than 7 evenings.

PICTURE OF SPRUCE-IN-BOX

This lovely bundle of organized yarn is for a knitting compitition. I signed up for it 9 months ago! I have to have it done before Christmas. I have to make balls out of the yarn before I can start making the stole.

PICTURE OF PILE(S) TO SORT

Maybe my e-mail is just a symptom of a greater problem: I save to sort later. These boxes haven't been unpacked in years but I still keep them at the ready. Just in case. In case of what, I don't know. I'm trying to keep the other piles from becoming box situations but any time I go through them I'm left with a trash/recycle pile. ...and another, albeit smaller, keep and organize later pile.

Neurology #2

3 weeks ago, I returned to Dr. Cellphone's office ready to eat someone, anyone (everyone!) if I had to. I had a bulleted list of points to make while dishing out some emotional whiplash  to the cellphone talking, misogynistic, assumption making, fat-hating idiot.

As it turned out, I didn't see the Dr. Instead, I saw the RN. She spent a few moments reading through my file--my medical history, the notes I'd given them about my life, and the ADHD test and "sleep" study results. The longer she took to get the whole picture, the less angry I felt.

Not less upset, mind you. I just wasn't in the mood to eat anyone alive any more.

She started with, "Your test results would indicate you have ADHD." I cried.

The RN paused a moment and then moved away from the Dr. Seat into the other Patient Seat and said, "Tell me what's going on."

I cried more.

And as I continued to cry, I told her how Dr. Nomanners threw it out there that I need to weigh 110 pounds, sleep 3 hours more than I already try to, and exercise "more" than who even knows what because 1) I work out with my sister regularly and 2) I weighed this much when I played rugby, swam, and rode my bike to work. I told her how he accused my husband of not doing enough, like he should be up until 12am with the baby and then up again at 5:30am because Baby's, well, a baby.

By then I had stopped crying and I was able to move seamlessly into the fact that, beyond the general waste of investing in a bad doctor, I can't invest in all of these tests and trying out different medications because there is a very real possibility that we're going to lose our health insurance by 2011.

And, just for good measure, I threw in the strange sidenote Dr. Insane had about "restless leg syndrome" because, honestly, what do you expect a woman to do when her entire body and her brain pulse with the need to move but the only socially acceptable action during conversation is a small leg movement or two?

The RN listened carefully. She nodded, she empathized. She started with, "I think you have ADHD. We can start you on Ritalin because it's the cheapest without health insurance. If you lose your insurance I can change the appointment codes and space them farther apart. You can afford this. You can do it."

And she ended with "You're beautiful."

In the middle were minor details like, Dr. Whatshisface is some amazing neurologist and he's respected all over the world for his amazing inventions. The real point of all this was 1) she'll talk to him about saying stupid things to patients (again) and 2) he's so damned busy with all of this other not-me stuff that I won't be seeing him again, anyway. And she mentioned, "I'm not excusing him. It's unacceptable. Have you ever heard of a genius with no social skills?"

So long story short, I've been on Ritalin for 3 weeks. I was also given a pill to help me fall asleep but, as the time stamp for this post will show, I haven't been taking it regularly. My head feels like it's sloshing around 1/2 the time and I don't like that.

I'm not fond of the Ritalin, either. I have amazing concentration abilities but I can also feel myself moving 1 bagillion miles a minute (inside and out).

Follow-up appointment at the end of the week and health insurance prospects have improved somewhat. We'll see what happens.