My One-Track Mind

A Failure to Communicate

Sue and I are normally superb at communicating with each other. We are, as I can best describe it, efficient. We are frequently forced to exchange information quickly, sometimes just by a look or gesture. I can typically stay with her as she jumps from one idea to another; usually on completely unrelated topics. She has a “high-speed” mind (I also describe Kari and Ryan as having one), moving from one idea to the next before I can catch up. Hmmm. Could it be I have a “low-speed” mind?

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Well, we are efficient communicating in other areas as well. We are both computer savvy enough with Microsoft Office to put out some really valuable documents related to Ryan’s care and Kari’s College tasks. Sue’s nothing less than an expert in Excel. She figured out an extremely cool process to PDF Excel files and get them to our mobile devices as books. By default, this process works with just about any file type. Over the past several days we have converted these documents, which will come in especially handy in an emergency or even for just routine medical questions.

Last night, on her way home from work, she called me to see if we needed anything. We ALWAYS need something. I went to my list and compared it against our PDF file of medications. I began rattling off medicines and supplements (L-GLutamine 1000, Vitamin E 400 IU, BCAA 2200, and so on). At the same time, I had the Vitamin Shoppe website up, making sure they carried each and determining the best value (on a per dose basis). My one-track mind was 100% locked on medications when she called back a couple of minutes later. Sue tells me “Look up ‘I-Annotate’. Someone told me about it today and I have an idea how to use it”. This is the point of communication breakdown.

I Become the Punchline

I type it into the Vitamin Shoppe’s search field. Nothing! “How do you spell that?”, I ask. She tells me exactly as I had it. Meanwhile, I’m thinking this would be a great name for an app; one where a person could modify PDFs or a web page. Anyhow, I try various spellings (iAnnotate, I Annotate, Iannotate) and get nothing. I tell her it seems the Vitamin Shoppe doesn’t carry it.

…silence.

I can hear her keys jingling in the cars ignition. Then it dawns on me what she was saying. I brace myself for what will surely come next. She doesn’t let me down.

Laughter. So intense I can practically hear her eyes watering. The kind of laughter that I’ve become all to familiar. A laughter that oozes “are you really that much of an idiot?”. Yes. It seems so.

As it turns out, she was talking about an app. An app for PDF files. Why, oh why, didn’t I follow my instincts? This one will surely take a good, long while to live down, I just know it based on her still not being able to pull herself together when she arrived home an hour later.

The Reality of it

To me, it’s simply another example of how our lives have changed. Our minds never seem to take a break from trying to improve our family’s situation and Ryan’s care. I know, for me at least, I solve these problems while sometimes working on something else entirely. It seems we unconsciously look at everything we do and see if we can apply it to our family in some form.