What doctors call "a little bit of an attention problem"

For those of you who haven't been around here that long or haven't been paying attention, allow me to explain that I am rather absent-minded.  And thank goodness, because I rely on that trait and its resulting stories for quite a bit of my blog and Twitter material. 

We're all a little absent-minded, Lori, you are thinking.

Well, you know how sometimes you walk from one room to another and by the time you get there, you've forgotten why you went?

Yes!  See, you are not so special as you think!  We all do that!

But unlike most people, I am capable, in the time it takes to open a drawer, of forgetting what I wanted to get out of it.  I have, on numerous occasions, been driving and had to wrack my brain to remember where it was that I was going.  Digital cable has been a boon to me because now, when I forget in the space of a commercial break what I was even watching, I can hit the Info button to find out.  When I had to get my car fixed last summer, I made a concerted effort to remember the name of the part that had to be replaced and all three times that Jerry the Mechanic mentioned it, I immediately forgot it.  This is maddening.

A couple of years ago, my then-boss diagnosed me with ADD.  It's not an official diagnosis because she is not a doctor.  However, she is not only a pediatric therapist who has seen more than her share of the attention-deficient set, but also the mother of a child with AD/HD.  At the time I thought, HA! What an excellent excuse that will be!  But the more I read, the more convinced I became that I really do have it.  And it explains A LOT.  All of those tendencies that I had ascribed to being a quirky, creative type are really just the product of a neurological disorder.  How boring.  I never went and got officially diagnosed because I checked what my insurance was going to cover on ADD meds and there was no way I was going to be able to afford them anyway.  I get by with my coping mechanisms, for the most part.

This week, for some reason has been worse than usual.  I think, in part, it has to do with not having slept so well lately, thanks to the sudden increase in allergy crud (thanks a lot, SPRING).  There is also the way that I have far too many things going on in my brain at the moment: All of the many details about when and how I will move.  The whole subletting of the apartment and whether either of those people actually applied or should I post it again?  And the one skillion things I have to do to get started in my teaching program and get my provisional license, all of which need to be done AT THIS VERY MOMENT except that when I email with a question about how to do something, they forward me the very document I just read that does not address my question at all.  When I have too many things to keep track of at once, it tends to cause my brain to catch on fire and thus, become useless.

With the result that I paid my rent on Monday, the very last possible day to do it, not because I was procrastinating, but because I hadn't noticed that a new month had started.  That's despite having written 5-1-08 literally 150 times at work on Friday.  When I went to pick up my coffee on the way out Monday morning, I discovered that I hadn't actually made any.  And the salad I brought for lunch could have been better, had I remembered about the salad dressing.  This morning, I dressed in a skirt with no tights and it wasn't until after I had left my house that I stopped to think about when I might have last shaved.  (Sunday, which isn't actually too bad.  Not that it matters since I have a blanket over my legs anyway because I sit in the Freezing Cubicle of Arctic Doom.  Nobody finds the blanket odd, since everybody gets stuck here when they're new and then they move as soon as another cubicle opens up.)

Last night, I even dreamed that I had been attacked as a result of my own forgetfulness.  A man was hiding in my closet.  (This was a fictional dream apartment - my real apartment has no closet door.  For safety, potential renters!  No men hiding behind your closet door!)  He had been able to get into my apartment because I had left my keys in the lock.  Death by absent-mindedness!  A TERMINAL CASE OF ADD!

Which brings me to my point: Mom, I bought you a card.  It is sitting on my desk.  I will try to remember to mail it.  Really.