Finally

I am now officially a Freelance Writer. I am having my first article published!

Mind you, it's in a trade magazine, but it's 2200 words and the editor (a renewed aquaintance) says "it's one of the best pieces I've read" and I'm getting paid. It's pretty exciting for me.

And I'm going to be in a local art show, in November. Maybe generate some business from the upper-middle-class parents.

Fairs

I went to the Puyallup Fair, our big yearly old-fashioned county fair, this weekend. I think my romantic ideas of the county fair are over. While I enjoy the charm of prize-wining livestock and blue-ribbon agricultural displays (I saw the cutest little Button Quail chicks, one week old and the size of large hopping bumblebees), the kids were into the rides. The rides were all 4 tickets each (meaning $4), and over in about 30 seconds. 2 kids, 3 rides each = $24 for a minute and a half of fun and 4 hours of whining 'I want to go on another ride!' Not to mention that I didn't get to go on any because I couldn't deprive my children of their 30 seconds. Really yummy elephant ears and kettlecorn, tho, and the kids both passed out on the ride home, so not a total loss.

But today I treated myself to a matinee of Vanity Fair. It was quite beautiful, if slightly anachronistic. The hair, the costumes, the sets were really very stunning, and gave me some great ideas for the painting I'm working on. And maybe Halloween.

May You Live In Interesting Times

You know that supposed Chinese Proverb?

I've come to the conclusion that I'm insane.

I set these really expectations on what my life should be, what I should accomplish, what talent I should pick up and hone, how nice my house should be, how sound my children, what new things I should learn, basically, how interesting my life should be, and then, when I get it, I freak out becasue it's too much. Sometimes, for just a second, I wonder if it would be better if we moved to te burbs and I got a normal job and my husband got a normal job and we just went to work, picked up the kids , had the same scheduled dinner (macncheese on Mondays, Tacos on Tues, Weiners on Weds), and watched tv until bed. But the thought of really doing that makes me want to slit my wrists, so instead, I snap at my husband, have a crying fit, and then I pick up where I left off.



It's chaos, but at least it's interesting.

Kickball!!!

I played kickball with a bunch of elementary school kids (and a preschooler) this afternoon. I kicked ass!



Funny, I hadn't done anything much physical in months, and I could feel it in my body: a weakness, a feeling of total atrophy. Then I danced my ass off last Friday (at a wedding) and Sunday (80s-goth night), and tho my calves hurt for 2 days afterward, it felt so good! It gave me the energy to climb around the jungle gym and play kickball today, when I would have normally just sat and watched. I didn't play for a long time, mind you, as I was 1 of 3 kickers/runners at first and then the pitcher and sole defense against half-a-dozen kids, but I actually worked up a sweat and breathed heavily. Pretty lame how seldom that happens, but for today, I feel awesome!



I know all that stuff about the natural high of endorphins, but I'm so naturally lazy that I forget.

ADD

Is ADHD getting more prevalent, or do they just want us to think everyone has it? Can you classify my hereditary leaping from interest to interest as ADD? The fact that I have to try doing all this different stuff, attempting different instruments, devouring books like a glutton, making too many friends, making something different for dinner every night--speak of a short attention span? Is my son ADHD because I have to tell him 8 times to feed the dog because he gets distracted in the way by a Pokemon card, a shoe, a video game or is he just being a normal 7 yr old?

I've seen the awesome South Park episode where all the kids get ritalyn and start liking Phil Collins. I have always said that ADHD is a bullshit diagnosis aimed at soothing the parents who can't handle that their kid is acting like a KID. Ritalyn is being used just like laudanum was used in the Victorian era, to create sweet, well-behaved, calm, speak-when-spoken-to, glassy-eyed, listless children. It's sick.

But then again, consider what MTV has done to movies and tv. We now require constant motion, weird camera angles, frenetic music, random dancing graphics in the corner, and a tickertape across the bottom of the screen to keep us entertained. That way of looking at the world caught me at the beginning of my teens, or late adolescence. Kids today were born looking at the world that way. Now they're being born into the world of the instant gratification, the at-your-fingertips wealth of information and entertanment of hi-speed internet, digital cable, cell phones, and i-Pods. So would it be impossible that ADHD is on the rise? Not really.

Is there anything we can do about it besides getting kids hooked on stimlants at an early age (I know people who swear they later became coke addicts or speed freaks because their parents gave them Ritalyn). Is there anything we should do? Is it going to be a requirement to be ADHD to learn in this fast-paced, info-packed world? Or will it interfere with the ability to learn? I don't really have any scientific bg on the subject, so I should just stop theorizing, probably, until I do some research, but honestly, I've already lost interest in the subject...I think I'm going to go look for one of those internet sites that teach you how to play piano.