Hello friends! I hope that you have been enjoying August. It’s flying by too quickly for my liking. Every year I have a deadline on August 31 (technically August 30 this year, since August 31 is on a Saturday). This is one of the quieter August deadlines of recent years, but I have a huge permit due on September 4, on top of multiple projects with conflicting deadlines…so work has been very, very, very busy. My office has been very quiet lately – a lot of the people I used to work with either work from home exclusively now or have left the company. But I enjoy working with the small but mighty team of folks who are still there. I’m really hoping we’ll all be working in the office on August 30 – this will be my first deadline physically present in the office since 2018! I want to bring donuts or breakfast tacos as a treat.

The biggest news recently is that I’ve started treating my ADHD, and it has been REVELATORY. I really need to do an in-depth post about my symptoms, decision to pursue a diagnosis, the screening process, and treatment. Seeing discussions on Reddit and Instagram about women masking their symptoms is a huge reason why I decided to get screened, and I want to be transparent about it here so I can help others who may also be masking their symptoms. I’ve already encountered people being dismissive of it when I revealed my diagnosis to them. While these comments (“Everyone has ADHD”) were certainly not made out of malice, their remarks made me wonder if I truly have ADHD and if this is even a legitimate disorder (spoiler alert – it is! And it’s one of the more common neurodevelopmental disorders, so you probably know multiple people who have it). But seeing how well I am responding to treatment makes me angry that it’s stigmatized, and that it’s so expensive to diagnose and treat. I’m just relieved that I had access to these resources and was able to find an answer after all this time! So many of the things I absolutely loathed about myself make so much sense now. I can’t change the past, but I can manage my symptoms in the present and learn about how my brain works to show up as the best version of myself that I can. I am truly grateful that I have that opportunity now.

What else is going on? Let me count the things:

1. Orchestra has started again, and that music is HARD. OMG. So many songs in fifth position with high, screechy notes on the E string. But I’ve started learning how to do the third position (the proper way) with my lessons, and that has been helping (I need to practice after I finish this post because the music is super intimidating). In drum lessons, I was working on swing patterns (basically doing different patterns with the right and left hands – breaking my brain in the process). But I convinced my teacher* yesterday that I should start learning this song as well, even though it has nothing to do with swing patterns:

I love this song so much. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the Foos, and each time I hope they bring this song out of the vault. AND THEY DON’T. I’d happily give up hearing “My Hero”* for the thousandth time for something like this.

2. Since Husband couldn’t come to Dublin after my COVID fiasco, he decided to get me a replacement birthday gift. Behold! A new violin case! I’d previously had a hard-shelled violin case, like the orchestra rentals of my youth. Now I have a professional case that can hold ALL my accessories, like the shoulder rest! And he got me a beautiful skein of yarn from Hill Country Weavers.

3. Yesterday we played frisbee golf at Brushy Creek, and I saw the BIGGEST SPIDER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE. It is a yellow garden spider, which is an astoundingly benign name for how it looks. I don’t know how to do a spoiler cut here, so just SCROLL REALLY QUICKLY if you don’t want to see a close-up of it.

4. My pets are adorable. I mean.

Okay, I have been on the couch for a little bit and I’m getting restless and that VIOLIN IS NOT GOING TO PRACTICE ITSELF. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and a good start to your week tomorrow.

*My teacher is a huge Dave Grohl fan and is in a Foo Fighters cover band, so there was admittedly little convincing.

**I’m just gonna come clean and say that while “My Hero” is objectively a good song, it’s not a favorite of mine and I would be okay not hearing it live.