In my post The Force is Strong in This One, I explained there are two sides to my AD/HD superpowers. Both sides were on full display in the past 24 hours: I lost my keys, then I used The Force to retrieve them. Let’s set the scene: Beautifully sunny day. Busy sidewalk in Downtown Brooklyn. Ventilation …
This school year I am a private tutor here in fair Brooklyn, traveling on my bike between clients’ homes when the weather is nice. (Yes, it’s dreamy.) It usually goes quite smoothly…until early last evening, when I dropped my keys through a grate and into an Alice-in-Wonderland hole about two stories deep. I’m standing there in the dark, bike still locked to a railing, 15 minutes from my next session, listening to my life tink-tink-tink its way into a distinctly different Monday night.
Apparently my efforts to build an ADHD-proof single woman’s existence came in handy as I attempted to remedy this problem. Simply follow these steps should you or a friend ever encounter such a situation:
How to Lose Your Keys
Total problem-solving time: 40 minutes
Because when you are wired for disaster, you anticipate disaster, baby!
This month, I packed 16 years of traditional teaching in four boxes and brought them into my home. They are still there. Like a threat. I can’t unpack them.
Student: Beth, what did you say you have again? OCD? Beth: Nope! Though I understand your confusion. I have AD/HD. Student: Huh? But you’re not all, “Blaaaah!!!” [flaps arms, runs in a small circle with tongue wagging] Beth: That’s not what hyperactivity looks like in everyone. [student accurately senses a lecture, flees to his next …
This past month, I took the state exam that would officially allow me to teach students with disabilities. This is huge news for several reasons:
When I was little, my brother asked me to play video games with him once a month. That was about how long it took for him to forget that I have almost no ability to make a person who is not me move by pressing buttons. I also did not want to “share” the Rubik’s …
I should never be alone in an office supply store. But every year I have to make a back-to-school pilgrimage to see what the organizational gods have designed for this year’s batch of adolescent frontal lobes. The frontal lobe, which contains the prefrontal cortex, is our executive command center- the place where problem-solving and decision-making …
This summer I signed up for a six-day assisted trek in the Icelandic highlands as a way to “get away from life.” Isn’t that cute? Apparently Iceland was magical, so I decided that’s where life was going to pause. No problem! I hike. I have water shoes. Bring on the vistas!
