I Did it (Finally)

Yesterday, after what seems like years of wanting to do it, months of planning to do it, weeks of having help to do it, I FINALLY did it! Suddenly the word “finally” looks so silly! Why isn’t it pronounced fin-ally? Like a fish fin.

But I digress. I did it, I sent a poem out to a real literary journal. Not one poem, 3 poems! To one journal. One at a time is all I can handle.

Oh I’ve had poems “published” before — a little haiku got into our local free newspaper “Our Town,” and a couple of my little funny events got into the NY Times Metropolitan Diary section, and I got a poem and two essays into an online journal for health professionals (and patients), and I was proud of all of them. But most of all, boys and girls, most of all I want a poem in a journal.

Am I afraid of rejection? Not a bit. I have A.D.D. and will scrupulously avoid anything that seems too challenging or that I haven’t done before or that has an aspect of stress (like the laundry!).

I have a helper, a woman from Task Rabbit. Do any of you know about Task Rabbit?
Some cities have this service where you can find people to help you with various tasks for not much money. This nice woman comes every few weeks and helps me do
my paperwork. She thinks clearly. I don’t. So she helped me.

A.D.D. has another funny characteristic: I can get almost anything done with someone else in the house. It’s called “doubling.” Some A.D.D.folks actually call each other on the phone and double that way. When my housekeeper comes every 2 weeks I do laundry, pick up all the clothes on the floor and pay bills.

We laugh about it. I tell her if she stays another 20 minutes I can do my taxes.