A Splintered Mind

Originally published at Absentminded Author, v2 .

Originally published at Absentminded Author, v2 . Life2.0 has been full of interesting twists and turns. The latest is my Christmas stint at Bigbox Bullseye, which starts tomorrow. It's not glamorous, but it will help me update my job history with something contemporary while I rethink my options. Oh, and it will help me pay bills and buy boxes of Christmas cheer, something to be smiled upon, I'm sure. And n ow that “Get a job. Just any job.” has been checked off of my list, I can move onto the next item: School or not? I decided “not” for now. It needs to be a means to an end, not the end itself. After that was “Art or not?”, but that one may have to wait. You see, now that my ticking disorder has subsided, I'm feeling the urge to draw again. Unfortunately, the years of ticking damaged my skill. I would need to retrain to get my skill back to a professional level. So deciding to pursue illustration is not an easy decision. Is it something I really want to do, or i...

Originally published at Absentminded Author, v2 . iPad sketch in Bamboo Paper.

Originally published at Absentminded Author, v2 . I've noticed I'm not getting much writing done lately. Instead, I'm moving things on eBay, filling out job applications, being sick. It's been a party. I'm surviving by hocking collectibles on eBay. It's not making big bucks, but I'm paying the bills. Mostly. And at least I'm keeping the minivan filled with gas. Of course, "filled" is relative. It's actually more like "at least I'm keeping the engine from sputtering to a stop," but if you pretend that 10% is 100%, then that tank is brimming over the edge with gusto. Aside from being down for obvious reasons , and it being the beginning of Winter Depression for me, I did have a bit of a setback the other day. I took my blood pressure and discovered it was 183 over 118. I hear that's bad. My dad was so surprised when he heard the numbers that he jumped a bit off the couch. So I've been working on reducing str...

Nothing messes up routine like moving, and when I threw in the end of a long-standing relationship on top of it, my routine was in tatters and my ADHD was out of control . So much of my life was in disarray. But don't worry. At least I got an exchange. One of the most important goals for me in setting up a new home was to eliminate old items from my previous marriage. Unless I had a strong emotional connection to that errant towel or kitchen utensil, I didn't want it around. It wasn't that they were tainted and evil; I just wanted to start fresh. Starting fresh can be expensive. For the first six weeks, the girls didn't use the shower in the bathroom attached to their room because we couldn't afford shower curtains for it. We shared the guest bathroom's shower. One night last month I finally had some money set aside for furnishings. I took them to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick out their shower curtain. They bickered over the same three curtains for ...

Originally published at Absentminded Author, v2 . Let's pretend it's Monday…again. Time for a creative writing exercise. Take a look at the picture and write a paragraph or two. No theme. No limits. It can even be pulled from your own memories. Let your imagination go wild for a moment. Today I'm going to write about a real story that happened to me the other day. Since moving to my new apartment, I've been walking around wondering where I'd stuff a dead body. In the garage? Under the stairs? Beneath a pile of wood chips at the end of the parking lot? Each place seemed too mundane and uninspiring. I needed a creative location that would help me push away the doldrums and get deep into the nitty gritty. I needed a place that would avoid detection and misdirect the police. Late September the perfect place came to me after they closed the pool off for the winter. There it was; right in plain site. But how much time would it buy? Weeks passed as I pondered ...