Friday Fun! Tales of a Space Cadet

Charlie doesn’t sleep well. We’re in the process of an investigative sleep study to find out why his brain isn’t telling him to breathe properly when he sleeps. Needless to say, he doesn’t usually get a good night’s sleep, resulting in some rather humorous behavior. There are obviously many negatives to this, but let’s not go there today.

Dictionary.com defines a space cadet as “a person who appears to be in his or her own world or out of touch with reality.” Urban Dictionary says this kind of person is “easily lost in reverie” and “does not respond when directly spoken to.” Here’s how Charlie measures up.

In His Own World

I did the ice bucket challenge and had my boys dump the ice water on me – to William’s everlasting enjoyment. I still can’t figure out what Charlie was thinking when I was about to say “GO!” William was poised and ready with his bucket, but Charlie picked his up and started to wander off with it. You would think that the chance to dump ice water on Mommy would grab his attention.

Out of Touch With Reality

Charlie doesn’t seem to possess a concept of time. Yesterday when I picked him up from preschool (a seven minute drive from our house), we hadn’t yet left the parking lot when he asked that quintessential phrase of kid-dom, “Are we there yet?”

Sorry kid, my teleporter is in the shop.

Easily Lost in a Reverie

Charlie will listen to a skip in a CD for a good five minutes – at least. Sometimes my car’s CD player will finally clear it, and then he’ll ask for me to make it do it again. What is going through that funny head of his when all hears is “prac-prac-prac-prac…?” If William is in the car, he humors his brother for a while but eventually asks me to go past the skip.

Does Not Respond When Directly Spoken To

I think any kid has trouble with this. But an example of our usual scenario is:

Charlie plays with the refrigerator magnets. Daddy says, “Charlie we’re going to the toy store!” Charlie still plays with the magnets. “Charlie get your shoes!” Charlie continues playing. “Charlie, we’re going to the toy store!” Charlie continues playing. Daddy moves the magnets out of reach. “Charlie, we’re going to the toy store!”

Charlie finally says, “Oh! I LOVE the toy store!”

I’d love to hear from you!

Do you have a kid who’s a space cadet? Does he or she fit the definition? Or do they create a new definition of the word? What funny things do you do when you don’t get enough sleep?

Glutened Goals!

Well, Kristen Lamb has done it again! She manages to post blogs that are exactly what I need to be reading at precisely the right time. The last one addressed the enemy of the art – a failure to focus. While I usually have trouble with this because of my busy little boys both under the age of 5, I have a double whammy lately because of my trouble with gluten.

For those who are not familiar with gluten, it is not to be confused with glucose and is anything made from wheat, barley, or rye. I tend to be more sensitive than some other people I know and the dust from Cheerios can make me sick for a month followed by 2 more weeks of insomnia. People with gluten intolerance or Celiac Disease have varying symptoms (there are over 200 known). My personal symptoms are terrible cramping, profound exhaustion, constipation, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, depression, and lack of focus.

This lack of focus brings me to the purpose of this post.

I’ve been able to avoid gluten for the last 4 months, but last Friday night, something in my kitchen “got me.” I usually give up writing for the most part while I’m “glutened” because it is so difficult. I feel as though there is cotton stuffed in my head. Sometimes I’ll be writing along and I have to make a conscious effort to stop my pen because my thoughts have completely strayed from what I’m doing.

Kristen has made me remember that any writing is better than none at all. So I’ll try something different this time. I usually spend about 30 minutes in the morning playing my 2 computer games, because it’s the only quiet time I get all day. However when I’m glutened, mornings are when my symptoms are at their lowest so I will take this time to write something, anything, instead.

My WIP is top priority. If I can’t focus enough to do my WIP, I’ll do a blog post. If I can’t seem to do that, then I’ll practice my free-association writing instead. To keep myself accountable, I’ll post my progress either in my following posts, or in the reply section of whatever my last post was.

I will apologize here for sloppiness and errors in my blog posts, especially in the next month. I try very much to catch them at all, but it’s harder when I’m under the influence of gluten.

By the way, the image of Twizzlers is because it’s the one thing I miss the most and haven’t yet found a gluten-free alternative. 😀

Do you have any real hindrances that keep you from achieving goals? How do you push through them?