...and then you hear it on the radio - rise up - your 'everything' has opened up

Back from blog-vacation -

Been online quite a bit less these days for a number of reasons, some of them more fun than others, not all of it really bears 'catching up on' so this will probably just be a quick scan of what's on the radar to get back into the daily writing. Hooray for getting back to normal.

Had a very nice 4th of July weekend around the home and other places celebrating the first time we, as a nation, started a war in a country full of brown people that wasn't ours in the name of spreading democracy there.
Attempts at snarky insight aside it was nice to have the long weekend with the boys, who missed their dad after the long weekend previous. Aidan is such a sensitive boy and had teary-eyed moments in my lap where he told me how much he missed me. Owen is less emotional about it but also surprised me a couple days last week when giving me hugs goodbye when told me he didn't want me to go to work, just to stay home with him. So the holiday was a welcome one and spent almost entirely with family just trying to make it all count as much as possible for the little guys.
To that end we also had our mini-vacation to Duluth this Sunday night and returned Monday afternoon, just a quick and quiet little getaway with the wife and twins. We spent time on the shore of Superior skipping stones, we ate ice cream, we swam in the hotel pool (which always ranks as one of the boys' favorite things - it wouldn't matter if our hotel was located between DisneyWorld and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. You just have to accept that as a parent spending money trying to create a wonderful vacation experience) and saw the lift-bridge go up and down. That was Duluth.

I'm sure all the boys remember is lots of rocks, the pool and the fact that there were two beds in the hotel room close enough to spend all of the energy (and I mean ALL, they slept in until 8am Monday morning, an unheard of time to wake up for our kids) jumping back and forth between and laughing like little weasels. It was fun.

The trip home was quiet and I can't say that I missed being at work - even though I missed a day of being at work.

Tuesday morning I met for my follow-up appt with the mental health professionals I had seen and gotten my previously-mentioned diagnoses of ADD from. I would say things are going well.

The whole ADD question is a loaded one for me, I fought (and still resist) the idea that ADD is as much a "real" medical problem as you would think looking at the rates of prescriptions handed out for it ( I don't doubt that a neurological process exists that can be helped with medication but I also know how easy it is to hear that your teenager's shitty grades and outburts can be blamed on a condition and fixed with a pill) and I think a lot of people would rather hear that their problems functioning as an adult aren't 'their fault' and I don't feel like that's what I was after but I still found myself getting medication for ADD, which seems like something people either hide (which I'm getting over pretty quickly, obviously) or flaunt because it makes a handy excuse for erratic and crappy behavoir.

So I'm taking medication and I have to say it's made a world of difference.
I'm feeling way less tense during the day and I find myself organically getting things done in a way that makes way more sense than my scattershot approach, my moods are better because of not being so wound up trying to hold onto a few hundred thoughts and I've even been going to sleep like a human being.

Trying to take cues from the wife and the people around me to gauge how well it's going but I'm pretty pleased with it overall and I think the people that used to get a couple dozen emails from me at all hours of the day and night might agree.

That's all. more on the business of what I'm actually up to in the coming days and weeks now that I'm back to posting again.