I just finished reading When the Body Says NO: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection. I should probably read it again in a year or so. It might be wise for me to keep it with my scriptures and related books, rather than popping it into the self-helpy bookcase in my studio.
I had a great conversation today with Middlest on several topics, most of which are not germane to the blog. A couple of them are. One involves my current morning routine, and the other relates to how neurotypical I am. Or am not.
My morning routine has undergone several metamorphoses over the years. On good days, it goes like this: wake up when the alarm goes off, or a few minutes ahead of the alarm. Disengage from the CPAP and skip to the loo. Corral my hair into a claw. Don my glasses. Take my temperature (required, for work). Peel off the T-shirt I slept in and slip into the linen smock that hangs on the back of my bedroom door. Pad quietly out to the kitchen and start plopping vitamins into a small bowl. Decide whether I need a sheepie glass full of orange juice...
...or just a few slurps into a smaller glass. Figure out what I want for breakfast, or pre-breakfast, which could be: toasted Dave's Killer Bread with Wholly Guacamole; extra-thick oatmeal from Bob's Red Mill nuked with Craisins and either a spoonful of brown sugar or a splash of real maple syrup; another small bowl with cottage cheese and maybe some fruit or a bag of Cheez-Its or some triple ginger cookies from Trader Joe's. The size of pre-breakfast must be large enough to keep me awake and alert while driving in to work and small enough to require no guilt if I feel like picking up quiche Florentine and strawberries Romanoff from La Madeleine on the way.
Vitamins and juice and whatever go out to my desk in the living room. Turn on floor lamp and monitors. Wake up computer. (Mostly) remember to ask a blessing on the food. Head straight to the AARP website for the daily puzzles. I prefer to play them in this order: (1) The Daily Sudoku; (2) The Daily Crossword; (3) The Daily Jigsaw; and (4) Daily Crossword. If I haven't already done so at 11:00pm and at midnight, and if there's time, I work the Atlantic's almost-daily crossword and the daily Wordle.
If I am not interrupted while sorting my vitamins or working through the daily puzzles, this effectively reboots my brain for the day ahead. It's my equivalent of other folks' morning coffee.
Depending upon when I leave the house, I may catch the march of the day on the city's public radio station. I listen to one or more chapters in the Book of Mormon. If a sudden wave of drowsiness hits me, I fire up a Pandora station or just sing until I've arrived safely.
I have four options for picking up breakfast on the way in: (1) Panera, but I don't like their breakfast options as much as I do their lunch or dinner options; (2) La Madeleine, which is better for breakfast but spendier overall; (3) the McDonalds drive-thru, which is faster than Whataburger's but not as tasty; or (4) my friend's deli on the plaza level of our building.
On to topic the second. The last conversation that I remembered having with Middlest and Fourthborn, we were all agreed that while I had several of the markers for autism, there were not "enough" for me to consider myself anything other than neurotypical-but-quirky. In today's chat with Middlest, he said he'd been doing more discussing with Fourthborn and also with my sister's daughter, who was recently diagnosed, and all three of them agree that I am more -diverse than -typical. And that I am supremely good at masking.
It would explain so much. Especially about my lifelong difficulties with menfolk.
1 comment:
To be clear, I said that I had told you half a dozen times or so, but it didn't stick because timing or brain space. I told you as soon as I was sure of it, which was probably 6 months ago at least. It was just not a sit down chat, so it probably left as soon as you passed through a doorway
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