Killing Spiders

Puffs with lotion are not good for this. Just thought you all should know.

Kleenex vs. Puffs

I have been sick for a week now. It started on Sunday with just a sore throat. I missed work Monday, but made it Tuesday. Felt well enough Wednesday to reorganize my storage unit, but lost my voice completely by the end of the day. Thursday and Friday were spent on the couch. Thursday night I woke up twice in the middle of the night with mucus clogging all my breathing holes, so thick I couldn't move it. It was scary for a while, I couldn't really breath. I obviously got it moving because I am alive now. That prompted me to go to the doctor Friday morning. He gave me a prescription for Amoxicillin and codine.

I managed to go out for about 3 hours last night (Friday night). I went to a BBQ, which was very cold, then went to a friends and watched them play a rock band type game. It was actually really entertaining since they are pretty good. Anyway, by about 10:00 I was tired and my headache was so bad I couldn't move my head.

I went to bed and woke up with this severe headache. I’m not sure what it's from, but the collage of pills I took this morning must be kicking in because it's starting to feel a lot better. The codine I took last night knocked me out pretty good because I slept for 12 hours straight, which felt really good. I was up for 30 minutes this morning and went through 23 tissues in that amount of time. I'm starting to feel a lot better and I have a to do list today. I haven't done much all week except barely keep up with picking up after myself. Today I plan to pick up the house, do dishes, make granola, get groceries, and take out all the garbage. They are all packed full of tissues. I feel good about it.

Two lessons I learned from being sick this week. 1: Purchase tissues with lotion because they feel so much better on your nose when you have to blow it as much as I have. 2: Puffs with lotion are worth the little extra cost because they work a lot better than Kleenex with lotion. Puffs have left my nose much less raw than the Kleenex I purchased earlier in the week.


Collage of drugs I took this morning:

Motorcycle Wiring

A friend came over to help me with some motorcycle wiring problems I have been having. My first problem was with the brake light; it wasn't coming on when I applied the brakes. To test this, he pulled the brake lever and I checked the light, since I can't pull the lever and see the light at the same time. Turned out only the foot lever wasn't registering the light. This was fixed by a simple adjustment to the switch position. Took about 5 minutes. My friend made the adjustment and said,

"Well that was easy. Now what?"

I thought for a minute and decided we should check the headlights, the high beams were not coming on. So we fiddled with the lights, got them taken apart He pulled on the wires for the high beams and said, "oh, well here's your problem." Turns out I never did wire the high beams. That would definitely explain why they weren't coming on. I decided I didn't want to mess with wiring those in right then, so we put them back together.

"Well, that was easy. Now what?"

I thought for another minute and decided that my turn signals were next. They weren't working either. We took the light bulb out, checked to make sure it was good, it was. We moved to the bars where the mechanism to turn them on is. Took this all apart and cleaned it up a little since it was all sticky. This didn't fix it and we couldn't take it apart anymore to look at the actual switch. I decided we should trace the wires out of the switch to see where they went. Followed them to one end of a connector….that wasn't connected to anything. My friend hooked it back into the other end of the connector since I couldn't reach. Guess what? Turn signals worked! So did the horn. Amazing how that works. When you connect the wires to where they are supposed to go, they work!

"Well, that was easy. Now what?"

Well that was all I had to do. After about an hour of work, we had fixed all the electrical problems I was having with my bike. I wish it was all that easy.

I miss you.

Once again, I thought I was over you. As it turns out I'm not. I dunno, maybe I am. I'm going back and forth in my head as I'm typing this. Whatever. Maybe I just don't care anymore. I really wish I could just not care. It would make everything a whole lot easier. Maybe someday I'll forget you, and your little dog too.

Getting Life Organized

(Title inspired from my friends comment a few posts back)

Me being as ADD as I am, I actually have to plan and organize things that most people wouldn't even need to think twice about. But, having realized this about myself, I have taken quite a few steps this semester to help get me more organized. I borrowed a book about ways to organize life for people with ADD. Apparently, the normal techniques for normal people don't work for us. Makes sense, I have been trying them my whole life and they don't stick! My first step was schedules. I have developed a LOT of schedules. I have a laundry schedule (which reminds me, I need to get today's laundry started), I have a cleaning schedule, I have a menu, I even have a menu planning schedule, I have a piano playing schedule, and I have an eating schedule.

My cleaning schedule splits the important weekly cleaning chores into different days of the week, so it only takes about 15 minutes, 3 or 4 days a week It took a week or so to get this started. Actually, this really only started last night. I was behind on my cleaning, so I had to get everything all the way clean once before I could get started…

And here is an example of how my ADD mind works! Believe it or not, mid sentence up there, I decided I should write and ADD blog. I just did a quick web search and didn't find much, and nothing that was helpful for me at all. I know what you're thinking, this will just take more time and I already have a hard time getting done what I need to. Well, as you can see I spend *so much* time on this blog…extremely sarcastic just then, if you didn't pick up on that. I will see how it goes. Back to your regularly scheduled blog reading…

Where was I? Oh, yes. Cleaning. Last night, I was having focus issues. Could not bring myself to sit down and do homework like I really needed to. I was extremely tired, which didn't help. I decided I was going to be productive anyway. So, I put my homework away and I dusted, vacuumed, swept, and mopped instead! I was still tired when I finished, of course, but it felt good to get something productive done. This got me on track for my cleaning schedule. Now I can keep up with the schedule each week and I won't get overwhelmed.

Side story! After cleaning last night, it was time to cook dinner. I had planned dinner in my head earlier that day, salmon, wild rice, and herbed broccoli. I should know by now, especially when I'm tired, things never go exactly as I want them to. After spending a couple hours cleaning, I poured rice into a measuring cup. Can you see where this is going? Of course, the rice went all over the floor. I had just swept! If you have never had this happen, rice bounces everywhere when you spill it. So, I swept again. Thought about using it since I did just clean, then decided against it. I don't clean that thoroughly.

Ok, this is getting really long. I apologize. I'll summarize the rest. I have been sticking to my laundry schedule, and my menu fairly well. This helps me spend less time thinking about what to wear in the morning and what to cook in the evening. Also, I have leftovers to take to school with me for lunch. Uh, I kinda thought there was something else, but I can't remember now. Oh well! Thanks for reading all the way through this way too long post!

Class vs. Motorcycle vs. My Brain

I got up late today. I slept through two alarms and a text message. I don’t know what my deal has been lately, but I have been very tired. By the time I was ready to go, I was going to be late for my second class as well. I decided to spend the next couple of hours before my third class getting my motorcycle ready. I went to buy a battery and get the registration renewed. Last time I got a new battery, I didn't actually put it into the motorcycle and get it ready, so I assumed it was just like a car battery. Buy the battery, put it in the motorcycle and you're good to go. Wrong. Apparently, you buy the battery, then you have to fill the battery with the enclosed acid. It comes with step by step instructions so after a short pep talk and a few phone calls to fellow riders, I decided I should be able to handle it.

I got the acid into the battery with a couple minor hang ups, but nothing major. Next step, let the battery sit for 30 minutes, then charge according to chart on the next page. Wait, what? It was then 11:15 AM, and I was still expecting to put the acid in and take off. So, I texted my friend in my 3rd class and told him I wasn't going to make it because I didn't have time to get there, thinking it takes more than 15 minutes to walk, catch the bus, ride my bicycle, and my battery wasn't ready. I decided to be productive at home since I was missing so many classes.

I dug out my helmet and all my other riding gear and looked it over. Cleaned my helmet and visor, and I even wore my helmet outside for a few minutes to make sure the sun didn't glare off of it in any weird ways. I had time to eat lunch and take a look at some homework before my classmate met me to do homework before class.

As we were sitting there, I was tell her about my morning. It wasn't until then, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, that I realized that my math class is at 12:30 and I had texted my friend telling him I wasn't going to make it to class just before 11:30. I had a whole hour more before my class than I thought! I missed that class for no reason at all. Well, my reason was that my brain doesn't always work right!

At least I got my motorcycle all ready to go and I was able to ride it today.