Blog Awards Series #6/Improv #17: They Say It’s Your Blog Award

<Image Text>: Non-ADHD Storytelling = start-of-story to end-of-story. ADHD storytelling= takes every detour and side tangent possible!

ADHD is known for “all or none” thinking, which also translates to “out of sight/out of mind.” It’s basically the reason our infamous desk piles are productive for us. If we put something away in a “safe spot,” we’re guaranteed never to look at it again!

The right amount of color in an organization scheme is similarly distinctive, but, if I color coded everything in my Passion Planner by its due date, as the true bullet journal fanatics will, then nothing would ever be urgent because everything was. In the end, I have two highlight colors only: blue for “due by end of the week,” yellow for “due by the first couple of days of the new week.”

Thanks to histrionicbutterfly of Life As Me, I was reminded of an obvious fact I had still managed to completely overlook: this kind of out-of-sight/out-of-mind” and “all-or-none” thinking can occasionally be neuroprotective. The easiest way to avoid difficulties from two masks falling off when trying to wear them simultaneously is to only ever wear one at a time in the first place! I sent my Partner off to entertain the grandparents-in-law and “revised” my call time extra early. Between not having to put on my “dealing with family is still scary” mask at all and the fact I am still photosensitive and can’t actually make out the audience behind the stage lights even when I want to, it felt like performing normally. I was happy with how the show turned out.

The only thing I was disappointed by in the show was that we didn’t get to play a game called Lyrics Only, which is exactly what it sounds like. Performers must run an entire scene speaking only in lyrics from songs as their answers. I love word games in Improv generally, but I am usually less fond of that one – not because I’m terrible at it in absolute terms, but because I’m terrible at it in relative terms.  The audience connects best with lyrics from popular songs, and my musical tastes run a few generations too old for my audience (and me, by my age alone.) The audience usually can tell they are lyrics but don’t quite know the songs to truly appreciate them because they can’t mentally sing along. However, since I usually have the lyrical stylings of someone’s grandmother, I was hoping that I’d get to trot out this “relative” strength the one time I had honest-to-goodness relatives of appropriate age to appreciate in the audience. Alas, it was not to be.

But, overall, things went well. However, “going well” still meant far more “peopling” than I am used to. I’ll write more next week, but for this week I claim the “peopled out” privilege. I also haven’t forgotten that this week remains the week of the b-word that shall not be named and also the one-year anniversary of the most recent reason why that date continues to live in infamy. I did seriously look into taking the advice of another blogger, Vixxy Rose of Crazy Little Things and renting a rage room to “celebrate” that fact, but it seems that the idea is too popular for its own good. The one that would be nearest to me is closed for the next few months while it remodels to accommodate the “unexpectedly high demand!” (Though, when it reopens, it will, I note, let me pay extra to smash some unwanted mementos of my own to my own custom playlist for a little extra. I briefly wondered what soundtrack could ever accompany the 9th Circle of Hell, then realized I had already unintentionally created one in the form of my Zombie Apocalypse playlist from last year.)

Since I can’t go apocalyptic on any remaining evidence of the last year, I guess I’ll fall back on another old standby for this week for when I want to be an introvert for a week but still post something  remain balanced during a frustrating anniversary. I’ll respond to a blog award! This week’s episode is graciously provided by justsaltwriter. 

Because I’ve got lyrics (or rather, the lack of the chance to enjoy them on either stage or smash) on the brain and also because the ADHD brain – in addition to being all-or-none – has a tendency to take a very generous interpretation of what qualifies as necessary and sufficient for appropriate storytelling, I’m going to answer all of the questions in the form of Lyrics Only. Why? Because a ) it’s my birthday blog award and b) I have expended more spoons than recently than usual trying to rein in my tangential ADHD storytelling tendencies to play tour guide in a way that doesn’t literally bounce between three centuries of colonial American history within five minutes – with a dash of subway sociology thrown in for good measure. I’m letting my tangential flag fly here in recompense.

1. How do you define life?

Aperture Science

We do what we must because we can

For the good of all of us

Except the ones who are dead

 

2. Based on your answer in 1. above, how often do you think about death?

But there’s no sense crying over every mistake

You just keep on trying till you run out of cake

And the science gets done

And you make a neat gun

For the people who are still alive

Why yes, I did keep it to the same song. Because I make things hard on myself. Also, sometimes the cake feels like a lie. That’s ok, but try to hang on because some cake, at least, isn’t a lie.

3. If you had a clone, would you be pleased in telling him/her your life secrets? And how would you accomplish the task of reassuring him/her that everything is going to pan out alright when he/she is about to give up on life?

We didn’t start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world’s been turning

We didn’t start the fire

No, we didn’t light it

But we tried to fight it

4. If beauty was defined in terms of a moment, what/how will it be?

Our hopes and expectations

Black holes and revelations

5. Between cooking and eating, what’s best, on the assumption that none of the two is obligatory?

When a moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie

That’s amore

When the world seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine

That’s amore

Umm, both? Training to become a world-famous chef?

6. Do you believe life is a function of fate or destiny (note: destiny is the direct antithesis of fate.)

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em

Know when to fold ’em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

You never count your money

When you’re sittin’ at the table

There’ll be time enough for countin’

When the dealin’s done

I’m still not sure I understand how fate and destiny are antithetical, so I’ll just put these lyrics up here and let my readers decide which side they represent.

7. If you were to write five-line poetry for that one person in your life, how would it look like?

I’m your moon

You’re my moon

We go round and round

From out here,

It’s the rest of the world that looks so small

Ok, this one is fun enough to also warrant a real answer. I’ll try to write my own poem, too, even though it isn’t a lyric anymore:

Hey you, I love you more than salt.

Not quite, as I rethink I halt.

You say to mine own self be true.

Salt makes food – lifeblood of ‘I do’

I love it more – but so do you!

8. What experience in your life shaped you the most?

“Fools, ” said I, “You do not know

Silence, like a cancer, grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you”

But my words, like silent raindrops fell

And echoed in the wells, of silence

9. What do you do to relax?

Oh, it’s been a hard day’s night, and I’ve been working like a dog

It’s been a hard day’s night, I should be sleeping like a log

But when I get home to you I’ll find the things that you do

Will make me feel alright

10. What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?

 I want chicken, I want liver, Meow Mix Meow Mix, Please Deliver

*That refers to cat food, btw. If you were thinking anything else, shame on you! I’m an animal lover!

11. If money, health restrictions, family and career obligations, etc. were not an issue, where in the world would you like to travel to, for how long, and why?

So kiss me and smile for me

Tell me that you’ll wait for me

Hold me like you’ll never let me go

‘Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane

Don’t know when I’ll be back again

12. Are you an indoors, or an outdoors, person?

And babe, don’t you know it’s a pity

That the days can’t be like the nights

In the summer, in the city

In the summer, in the city

I love the outdoors, but I usually have to stay indoors in summer. Dysautonomia + heat = not fun!

13. What is scarier to you: speaking in front of a gathering of children, or a gathering of adults?

This is the song that never ends

It just goes on and on my friends

some people started singing it not knowing what it was

and they’ll continue singing it forever just because…

14. Define family. 

When the night has come

And the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we’ll see

No, I won’t be afraid, no I won’t be afraid

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

Those lyrics work for family-by-choice. If we’re speaking of families of origin, I change my answer, rather predictably, to:

I’m on the highway to hell

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Need a recap of anything I’m talking about in any post? Check out the Glossary of Terms.