I’m sure everyone has experienced this: you never really notice something until it is thrust into your attention– then, of course, it pops up everywhere. This particularly happens to me with words, such as the ever useful “albeit.” Never heard it before? Just wait, soon it’ll seem like the most heard word of your day. You’re welcome.

Well, the same sort of situation is happening to me… and I think it’s all my fault. Last week, I blogged about the fact that while I’ve always been accused of having Attention Deficit Disorder, I wasn’t convinced. “I was thinking, not distracted by the nearest squirrel in a tree. That’s why I don’t buy it,” I said, confidently. Remember that?

I shouldn’t have taunted the beast.

Ever since then, it’s like every cell of my brain looks the direction of the task I have at hand, chuckles, spits on it, and searches for the dog barking down the street. I’ve been blessed enough to be assigned a story for the center spread of the upcoming issue of Central Focus, but don’t tell my mind that. Nearly every time I’ve sat down on the blue thinking chairs in room 139, my mind soon strays away from the expensive Mac computers, flutters down the hallways and listens to each toilet flush.

When I’ve gotten anything done, it’s been in the peace and quiet. The back office of the newspaper room seems to be the only refuge for my concentration. The fact that I need the lights off, blinds closed, and doors shut in an already secluded room to even begin putting my fingers to the keys might be a hint that I have a bit of a hard time focusing.

So, mom, maybe you’re right. And teachers who have labeled me “bright, but a bit absent minded,” well… that’s still pretty low. But you’re probably right, too.

Hence, my faux-confidence of last week that I was ADD free is just as gone with the wind as my focus when antsy students tap on their desks. I’m fairly certain that there’s a bit of ADD in my bloodline, and it wouldn’t be too far off to suggest that a bit of that flows into me. Does that mean I’m high tailing my distracted self to the nearest doctor, begging them for Adderall? Heck no.

If I’m going to be completely honest, sleep hasn’t exactly been in abundance during my week of having a wandering mind. Last week, I explained that while I should be sleeping, I’m slanting– running a slant route in my mind, that is. Mentally entering the end zone is preventing me from making my way into dream zone come bed time. The little amount of sleep I’ve been giving my body has in turn left me slumped over in my desk, fighting on that oh-so-thin line between listening hard and hardly listening.

Hopefully this week is an anomaly. Likely, I just need to hit the hay a bit earlier. Or maybe I’ve been paying too much attention to the fact that I don’t pay much attention, and if I just pay less attention to that, I’ll be able to pay more attention. Get it?