In the “Captain Underpants” series, author Dav Pilkey (yes, that’s really how he spells it) always concludes his first chapter with, “But before I can tell you that story, I have to tell you this story … ” Lately, I seem to be stuck in the same boat.
Let’s say, as I did the other night, that I want to throw something away in the kitchen. Well, I go to do that and the trash can is overflowing. So now I want to take out the garbage. But it’s overflowed so much that before I can even lift the bag out of the can, I must open a new bag and put some of the overflowing trash into it.
When I’ve done that, then I can take the bag out of the garbage can. But I can’t take the bag out to the big gargage can outside because it’s been rolled out and around the corner for the city trucks to empty. So I have to put on shoes (and, in the mornings, a jacket) to go out and roll the big cans back around.
Then I can take out the bag full of garbage.
Then I can put the new bag of garbage in the kitchen can.
Then, and only then, can I throw away the thing I wanted to throw away in the first place.
I seem to be running into a lot of these things lately, work and home. I guess the solution, if there is one, is to try to think upstream in the first place, which is easier in some situations than others. It’s hard to explain why, but I seem to be having more trouble doing this now than I did in the past. I blame the meds, of course.
Speaking of meds …
I finally got a second opinion on my diagnosis. Type 2 bipolar, like the man said. The 2nd-opinion guy suggested a slight change in my Depakote dosage, which is cool because I’ve been hella groggy amost every morning of late. And now that I’m having to drive more for work than I did, that’s a good change from a safety standpoint.
After ditching the first counselor, I went to another one this week. Long story short, I think this is a guy I can work with. So that’s something.
And I got the promotion I wanted. It’s going to be demanding, but there were no surprises in my performance plan.
Finally, the range of my 1-to-10 numbers on my behavioral chart has narrowed, and it has narrowed up, not down — typically 4s, 5s or 6s. That’s good, I think.
