On the spectrum?

So last week we saw my Aunt Patti and her main squeeze Klaus. They were in Seattle for a conference, and even went down to the Westport winery but didn't know I was in Aberdeen. We ate at an amazing place Jason had told them about -- the Sunflour bakery. Wow-ee, it was insane. I had a smoked salmon scramble that blew my mind. Patti had french toast with caramel peach sauce. Klaus had eggs benedict with avocado. Ray had a Denver omelet. It was all delish.

During the dinner Patti said something that makes a lot of sense: My dad is ADHD. At least a little on the spectrum. When he gets locked into the computer and can't look up, that's "hyperattention," something ADHD people can get, or something, I couldn't really be bothered to learn all that much because holy Ritalin, I am on the ADHD spectrum too! It explained a lot, like why I'm so easily distracted by passing animals and classic cars and stuff. But dad is really on the ADHD tip, you can tell because he joined Twitter a month ago and only put in one tweet as you can see here. I joined to read (what I didn't know) what was his one tweet. So now I have a twitter feed here.

It also explains why I write about thirteen topics into one blog post, I guess. (this was once a part of my previous blog post but I thought Patti deserves a little more of a pole position than the bottom of a post, if you know what I mean. She's more important than crummy sushi). Not that I have an actual diagnosis or anything, that would require going to the doctor. But Patti said it's incredibly easy to "have" ADHD anyway. She managed to get a doctor to almost prescribe her pills for it after she decided to experiment and see how easy it would be to get the diagnosis. I think that's playing with fire, myself, what with all the weird stuff that could end up in your medical file. I mean, forget the foreign service or running for president after that (yes, Patti should keep all her options open).

Patti said that if I find something interesting, it should be able to grip my attention, even if I have ADD tendencies. That's interesting because I swear I have about a decade's worth of learning about land use and AYP and "concrete is not cement" etc. in my head and I paid more attention to it than times tables because I guess, to keep my job I didn't have much of a choice. Yet my own stuff doesn't flow out of me or grab me the way passive entertainment (i.e. "The Office") or interactive experience (i.e. "Logger's Playday") does. I find this somewhat, oh, boat-rocking since I like to think of myself as creative and independent minded. Really, though, I'm just a hack and my ADD tendencies probably confirm this. I like to work for the money, honey, is what I mean. And not hustlin', but through honest, corporate labor. With health insurance.

Ray is such a sweetie pie, he has cleared out a space in his garage for my car to go. I helped him, choosing to throw away stuff he was waffling on (like a broken buoy, for serious. He does not seem to be a packrat, but all his grandfather's boating stuff is just stuff Ray will never, ever use. He has no boat to repair and, just going by his personality, he never will.) I also have a garage door opener. I am worried he will use this as an excuse to hassle me to wash my car (perish the thought!). But I will accept the hassle and maybe wash the old girl since I should accommodate him in the way that he's accommodating me.

I'm also doing my part, making pot roast for dinner and having whipped up a batch of banana pudding for dinner. Ray is obsessed with banana pudding. I believe he was seriously deprived of Jell-o-based and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup-based recipes when he was a kid. I need to find my recipe for Coulibiac (includes canned salmon, something of an anathema to any Northwesterner) from grandmommy to convert him fully to Southern style cooking.