ADHD and Me

October is ADHD awareness month. I’ve decided to blog about ADHD every day of this month. In classic ADHD fashion, I need external motivation in order to produce anything consumable.

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Spirited and Sweet

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This is his “silly face”

I need to mommy boast for a moment. On Saturday we took the kids to Comic Con at the Santa Clara library, apparently to wear them out for days to come. S was starting to get “melty”, which is what I call it when he acts like he’s lost his bones. He becomes a puddle of human goo. BUT, there was a LEGO building contest! So, of course I signed him up.
 
He was super chill about not winning and waited in line to get a piece of candy for participating. When he walked over to me with his mini Twix bar I said, “OH YUM! You picked one of my favorites! Can I have it??? OM NOM NOM” He smiled his melt-the-coldest-heart smile, laughed and said, “you can have half and I’ll have half.”
 
OMG, I just about cried from mommy pride. All the challenges we have with this kiddo fade to the background when I remember how loving, sweet, compassionate, and caring he is. Who cares if you need five reminders to put on your PJs between the living room and bedroom, kiddo. You gave me a hug yesterday when I was frustrated and yelling. You’re gonna be just fine.

Goodbye, Alan Rickman, You Were the Best Friend and Mentor I Never Had

 

When I awoke last Thursday, I rolled over and grabbed my phone as I do every morning. I did the obligatory Facebook check and noticed that a friend had shared an article about Alan Rickman.

Oh hey, someone else who thinks he’s as awesome as I do, I thought.

Pause.

What a minute. There’s only one reason people start sharing random articles about people who haven’t just released a blockbuster film, checked into rehab, been arrested, or made a sex tape. All of which I was nearly certain hadn’t happened.

Frown.

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Shit.

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Celebrating My First Published Piece

I’m excited to announce that my first published piece came out recently in Brain, Child Magazine. I’m ecstatic! I have loved Brain, Child since I first discovered it and have dreamed of writing for them for almost as long. My inner critic told me it would be a difficult publication to break into because the writing is so beautiful and thought-provoking. But then it happened! Here it is!

“My mom admitted to me that she hates the color of my old bedroom, a peach like those circus peanut candies, with the air of confessing that she never liked a meal I’d proudly made her for years. I had just had my second baby and she had flown into town to help out. We were walking to the park for some much-needed outside time for my four-year-old. I looked over at her and studied her face, trying to reconcile this information with what I knew to be true. She and my dad had made me paint over my bedroom walls where I’d drawn a mural I loved, and it never felt like home after that.” Read more…

5-Alarm Fire in Downtown San Jose

I took this video at approximately 4:30pm from the 4th floor of Plant 51, a condo complex a few blocks away from the fire. The abandoned building used to house TV station, KNTV, Channel 11. It’s located at 645 Park Avenue on the corner of Park Avenue and S. Montgomery street. Across the street is a firefighter training facility and I’ve heard from neighbors that they would sometimes use the abandoned building for search and rescue training. It was also used by some homeless folks.

Mind the Sign!

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Often by the time I turn off the light and settle into sleep, it has already been quite a while since Dave dozed off. I have always been a night owl, although I am asleep by midnight fairly consistently these days. Not exactly early, I know, but a huge change from when I used to greet the sun before giving in to sleep.

Wednesday, Dave was out before I even had a chance to get into bed. As I slipped my feet under the covers he replied with, “nope”. I naturally asked what that was about. Continue reading

What does a writer/property manager/homemaker do all day?

For almost two years now, since we’ve moved out to the Bay Area and I’ve experienced my first long stretch without a job since my freshman year of college, I’ve been planning to write about working in the home. There are a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions associated with the kind of work I do that I’d love to address, but realistically they can’t all be discussed in one blog post. I’ll start with this one, “what do you do all day?”. Continue reading

Geeks Like Us Are Naming Genes

I was doing a bit of reading on Wikipedia tonight and came upon a reference to The Hedgehog Signaling Pathway. I had no idea what it was referring to, but knew it had something to do with genetics and thought it was a silly name so I decided to read more.

I didn’t have to read long before I noticed this sentence, “Mammals have three Hedgehog homologues, of which Sonic hedgehog is the best studied.” Thank you Wikipedia for linking everything that has an entry. Of course, I stopped reading about silly hedgehog pathways. I want to read about Sonic the Hedgehog! Again, I understood very little of what I was reading, but was intrigued. Continue reading