Hats, Boots, & Chocolate

    I had an epiphany today: I have a disability. Two, in fact.     I'll get to why that's an epiphany in a minute. First, life updates: I'm a YouTuber now! And a Twitch streamer! Mostly a Twitch streamer, but I put the VODs on YouTube. If you want to watch, my YouTube channel is here and my Twitch channel is here .     Okay, back to the epiphany.     Recently (as in, the last day of LTUE this year), I made a goal to write a 70,000 word novel (or 70,000 words of  a novel) by April 15th. I did really well at first, and made a lot of progress very quickly. Currently, I'm sitting at about 18.7K words 19 days into the challenge; I should be at about 20K words according to the tracking website I'm using, because my writing speed has dropped off recently.     However, due to the epiphany I had today, I've decided that, no matter the outcome, whatever word count I reach by April 15th, I'm not going to beat myself up if I haven't hit that 7...

The following is something I wrote for one of my classes this semester:     " I painted this art piece shortly before I broke up with my then-fiancé earlier this year; when I saw the details for this activity square, I knew this art piece would fit as-is. Looking back, I've realized that this piece portrayed my deeper, hidden feelings about the relationship, which at the time I was mostly unaware of; according to the textbook for one of my classes, this would have been the dyadic breakdown phase, because I knew something was wrong but couldn't pin down what (Welch, 2022).     " While I didn't go through a divorce per se, I was a mere month away from the wedding date we'd set when I initiated the break-up, and I'm glad I did it then because going through a divorce would have been much harder. Looking at this piece now, with everything I've learned about divorce since then, I think this piece represents divorce well because ending a relationship is painf...

Read Part One here , Part Two here , and Part Three here!     Before I get started, please keep in mind that all the tips and tricks I share here are things that have worked for my brain. They may or may not work for yours, and I'm not claiming to have found some kind of Universal Truth for working with neurodivergent brains. I'm also very well aware that some of these tips and tricks may be imperfect methods, and I plan to continue exploring and experimenting with my brain to find more effective ways to work with my neurotype. This advice is specific to my brain; feel free to adapt it how you need. Part One: The ADHD     At the moment, my top tip for working with the ADHD part of my brain is this: Weaponize Distraction.     Recently, my parents alerted me to the fact that they'd like to see me helping out around the house more. The fact that I tend to hang out in my room doing nothing productive has apparently been growing rather wearing on them. So, I sta...

You can read Part One here and Part Two here!     The diagnosis is in hand--well, saved onto my computer, but you get my meaning. As of a week ago, I have been diagnosed with Level One autism (no intellectual or language impairments, yay me!), moderate ADHD, and high intelligence--and yes, I count the high intelligence as a diagnosis, because it comes with benefits and problems of its own. We'll get there. :)     I guess by this point, it might be reasonable to wonder why I would share all this rather personal information about the last year of my life. Why does all this matter?     Honestly, I have dreamed for a really long time about having the ability to help people. I've spent the last almost-nineteen years of my life living and functioning with undiagnosed ADHD and autism, and while I think I've received a lot of gifts and advantages because of this experience, it is really hard to be different from all the people around you and not know why. I have o...

Read Part One here!     The thing was, I now had  proof  that there was something going on in my brain. All my cousins have dyslexia, and they've all struggled with Irish dance as a result of the unique way their brains work. The advantage they have is that there are six or seven of them dancing at the school, and so all the ones in lower classes have a more experienced sibling who can teach them. I didn't have that kind of support; I didn't see them often enough for that at the time.     At some point along the way, I remembered my sister-in-law's comment about me having Asperger's. One Google search later, and I fell down a rabbit hole researching autism. I don't know how many videos I watched from I'm Autistic--Now What?, Auticate with Chris and Debby, and How to ADHD (I'd been working at Thanksgiving Point for a year at that point, and both my manager and some family members had mentioned that I might have ADHD). I told my mom, and we discovered that...

    Hey there! It's good to see you again; come have a seat by the fire and let's have a little chat.     No, don't worry, Hats, Boots, and Chocolate  isn't going anywhere. :) I may not update the blogs as often as I used to, but I promise we're still around!     Today, I really want to talk about some of the experiences I've been having the last year or so.     Some time ago that was more than a year ago (it's really nonspecific, I know, and I'm sorry about that), my mom was talking with my sister-in-law, and my sister-in-law mentioned that she thought I might have Asperger's syndrome. I didn't know about this at the time, and didn't find out about the conversation until a little while later, when I was talking with my mom on the way to Irish dance class--this is the reason I'm unsure on the time frame, because I quit Irish dance a year ago (for reasons I'll get into eventually), but for a solid year before that, I was driving myself...

    It's time I was completely honest with you. Over the last few months, I have done barely any writing.     I know, I know, it's summer, so I should have way  more time than usual to get my writing done! And I do  have more open time than usual... but I haven't been spending it writing. Instead, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos, playing a lot of Stardew Valley, and working. Sometimes I get up and get useful things done at home, like washing dishes or cleaning bathrooms or folding laundry or practicing my step vault for the parkour program I've started (oh, yeah, I'm doing parkour now. It's great; I'll post videos of some of the moves I've learned sometime!). But all in all, it's been a pretty lazy summer.     And now, oops, summer is nearly over. I start my next semester of classes the week after tomorrow, and between a full-time college schedule and work, I basically have one and three-quarters open days per week (that aren't Sun...

    If you're one of the very, very few people who have been here since the beginning of this blog, you may wonder why I decided on the name Hats, Boots, & Chocolate  for it.     Honestly, I've been wondering the same thing for a long time.     The most obvious answer is, of course, that I love hats, boots, and chocolate! I love wearing beanies and my cowgirl hat, and my cowgirl boots are some of the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned. Chocolate is also a staple favorite around here; the very first blog post I ever wrote was a recipe for home-made hot chocolate lumps that store in the freezer and come in very nice, pre-portioned serving sizes perfect for making a rich, creamy cup of hot chocolate.     But I think that's not all--and I think God knew it wouldn't be all from the start. Sure, I initially chose this name because I couldn't think of anything that described me better--I'm a person who likes hats, boots, and chocolate a lot!...

    I know! Two  Bonus Posts in five days! I must have a lot to say this week or something.     Well, sort of. I'm around... seven weeks ahead on blog posts right now, and I didn't want this coming out in February. There's too much interesting stuff happening in my life January-March this year that I know I'll want to talk about, so no point getting any farther ahead.     So, this is my Christmas gift to all of you folk out there who are always late, no matter how hard you try to be on time, and to all you folk out there who like to honk at me on the road because you're in a hurry to Get There On Time and I'm not.     I'll start with a story, of how I think I got the way that I am. Then I'm going to go through and analyze as many of my behaviors as I can, to hopefully give you a bit of insight on how to be early to all those wonderful Christmas things you have going on this weekend. Ready?     Here we go. The Journey     I...