Subject: A. A. A. D. D.
Recently, I was diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D. - Age Activated
Attention Deficit Disorder. This is how it manifests itself:
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I
look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to bring the mail inside and go through it before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can and notice that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the
garbage first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table and see that there is only 1 check left .
My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go to my desk where
I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. The Coke is getting warm and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need water. I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to
water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the
floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe
up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
- The car isn't washed
- The bills aren't paid
- The garbage hasn't been taken out
- There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter
- The flowers don't have enough water
- There is still only 1 check in my check book
- I can't find the remote
- I can't find my glasses
- And I don't remember what I did with the car keys
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really
baffled because I know I was busy all day and I'm really tired. I realize
this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.
Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!