When ADHD Makes You Laugh…Sortta

Terry, if I'd been in the car with you, I would have thought, okay, we're here, the car's dirty, why not?

I think for me, I do so many stupid things throughout the day, I just shrug it off, refocus, and keep moving...or take a tea or lunch break. 

I used to be so hard on myself. Shame and embarrassment dominated my life.

Then I went to work for someone who is well educated and highly capable, but absent minded at times. (And as I recall, she also purchased a ridiculous amount of ketchup last year...or was it mayonaise...can't remember...it was one those "can't be without" condiments...)

A few years ago, she locked herself out of the house, proceeded to access a second floor window with a ladder, fell onto the front porch and literally bounced through a first floor window. Incredibly, she came though the incident stunned and not quite herself for a few hours, but suffered only a few scratches.

Awful story, I know, but in retrospect once you get over the initial shock, it's also very funny.

I guess what I've learned is that you can be really smart and absent minded too, regardless of whether or not you have ADD.

It's one of the reasons I love the Bridget Jone's Diary movies so much.

Grandma Lise

Terry

I have a story to share. Quite a few years ago, when my daughter was young enough to not be able to pour her own juice (she is now 13), she was sitting at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I was busy with my younger son. My daughter asked, "Can I have a glass of juice?" just as my older son was walking into the room (he was probably somewhere around 13 or so at the time- he has ADHD) and he said "I'll get you some juice."

He walked over to the refrigerator, turned around and asked if she wanted orange juice or apple juice. She said orange juice and he took the carton out, went to the cabinet and took out a plastic cup. He poured the juice, put the carton back in the refrigerator and leaned against the counter, chatting about his upcoming day and drank the entire glass of juice.

My daughter sat watching this entire scene and looked at him strangely. He asked her what was wrong and she said, "You drank my juice!"

He hadn't even realized and had completely forgotten the juice was for her.

We all laughed so hard.

Eileen

I have what I thought was a normal sized fridge. It works fine. I want it to stop working fine so I can legitimately get a new one. It is so inconveniently laid out inside, I can get a serious crick in my neck just peering in foir the swiss cheese.

We have condiments. We have so many condiments - some of them duplicates, or even double-duplicates -- and they all live in the fridge. I am not the grocery shopper here, thank goodness. But while we're pretty good about writing on the list (magnetted to the fridge) anytime someone uses something up or notes we're getting low on something, the Designated Grecery Man of the house, who loves to shop, invariably brings home things that were not on the list. And they wre not because we don't need more.

Some months ago I wrote, but have not sent out, a short survey I am going to send to just about everyone I know. Its instructions say, simply" Stand up. Got to the kitche, Open the regrigerator. Count every condiment in there. For the sake of uniformity in result, I consider chutney to be a condiment, even capers; but soy sauce and peanut butter are not condiments. Nor is anything you eat or drink straight. Like, right out of the container.

I want numbers. Just how many. I will bet half a refrgerator-ful of condiments that we have more than anyone I know. I'll report the results here, if you like. Don't know if it's appropriate or not, but if it is, Terry, it's all right with me if people want to let me know they want to be surveyed,.

I have some outrageous stories, one of which includes cayenne pepper in it, but am stingily saving them for a book.

Betsy

It's reassuring to hear that I'm not the only one who buys things they already have on hand and neglect to get the single thing needed most.

 I've a funny car wash story to share as well.  It was many years ago when we were getting ready to drive to Chicago to visit my sister, the perfect one.  We were taking my parents so I wanted my car to be extra clean which it normally is not.  I filled my gas tank and took my receipt for the car wash and proceeded to vaccum the car, which took me a considerable amount of time.  By the time I pulled up to the car wash I could not find my receipt and the attendant was very nasty and was refusing to wash the car.  Obviously I had vaccumed the receipt up, I argued with the attendant for several minutes before he grudgling allowed me to proceed.  I went through the car wash so fast I could hear the brushes hitting the ground and my car was covered with suds as I exited.  I was fuming, sure the attendant had put the speed up on the car wash.  I gunned my engine and screached my tires as I spun the car around to go complain to the manager about how I had been gipped.  The manager had her hands thrown in the air and was yelling obsentities at me, seems I forgot to put the car in neutral and had driven through the car wash and could have destroyed their equipment.

When I told my mother the story on the way to Chicago she laughed until she had tears in her eyes.  Sometimes, the only thing you can do is laugh and have fun sharing the experience.  Hear it is twenty years later and I still laugh when I recall the experience.

Cheryll

OK Terry,

So I had owned my 16 year old, 210,000 mile white Volvo just a little while.  A bargain at $1,000 from a friend (his daughter's college car,) I was thrilled with the heated seats, moon roof and stereo system.  So - it was either early spring or late fall,) I took it through a car wash. 

OMG!!!  I had not connected in my mind the relation between the loose rubber gasket around the opening of the moon roof and water.  Instantly I was being rained down upon UNDER PRESSURE as I went through the car wash.  Of course I have an umbrella in the car with me (always in the car, never in the house) and there I sat, laughing OUT LOUD hysterically as I sat with my umbrella OPEN in my car as I went through the car wash. 

LOLOL This is a true story!  Needless to say, my car  has not been washed since that day. Now it is a pretty dirty, white 18-year-old car with 240,000 miles on it.

Oh my gosh, these stories are just too funny. Who would have thought that ketchup and carwashes could produce such great posts. And they are all so visual, I could picture each scenario in my head. The juice episode, the car washes...maybe we should start a thread of funny ADD stories here.

Terry

If it weren't for my 4 year old, I'd never make it through.  It always starts the same.  I make a list.  I'm nothing if not hyper-organized to the point of being insane about it, which is hilarious considering that I can never ever find anything.

So I carefully create "The List" with the aid of my 4 year old.  I then carefully place "The List" under my cellphone and on top of my dayplanner, thereby making a little pyramid.  It's placed on the table by the front door lest I lose it; meanwhile, the keys are hanging on a nail just above the table.  I get the 4 year old ready (his shoes, I rarely seem to forget).  I grab my dayplanner/phone/list/keys concoction and out we go...to...the...store.

As I get in the car, my 4 year old (who really takes good care of Mama) begins the "car check".  Phone? Check. Keys? Check. SeatBelt? Check. etc.  Thankfully I have never forgotten the seatbelts (of which I'm eternally grateful to the heavens).

At the grocery store, I find that the list is missing.  So we plunge on ahead working through what I can remember of "The List."  Thankfully again, my 4 year old always seems to remember the things on it.  Well most of them.  Sometimes he tries to add things to "The List" that aren't there...PopTarts, Ice Cream Sandwiches, etc.  And sometimes he forgets things I know were on "The List" like broccoli.  But somehow we manage to get home with most of the groceries needed.  We do own too much ketchup though.  I think his biggest nightmare is being without it.  Mine is Toilet Paper. 

"The List" by the way is still sitting on the table by the front door.