John is home

John left Monday to go to New York city for a wine tasting, returned Friday. He was very happy with the wine tasting (and went to another) and he had one unsuccessful day of museums and one successful day. He came back saying he had had a wonderful trip.

I don't drink so I didn't wish I had gone. But it is hard that he does so well when he travels on his own, then comes home and is negative and confused. On Friday our son had had a driving lesson and done testing to evaluate his ADHD. John got mixed up three times in half an hour about which one our son had gone off to do that evening. And yesterday he was having particular trouble finding the word he wanted and sometimes used the wrong word without realizing it.

I think he is in a stage where he can hold it together when he is doing something he wants to do, but it is tiring so he doesn't do so well when he gets home. It makes sense that he would be awfully tired after a trip but I do get frustrated sometimes that he can't put together that kind of effort when it isn't all about him. On the other hand, I'm glad he is taking responsibility for his own happiness.

I've been deep in house renovations. After they cut a hole in the roof the carpenter and I batted ideas back and forth and ended up more than doubling the size of the dormer. He says I should take the attic room as my bedroom, it is going to be so nice. He also came up with a better idea for how to fix the staircases, which weren't to code. John initially didn't like the tile I had picked for his bathroom, but we went to Lowes to look at other alternatives and he decided he liked it after all when he saw it on a wall from a distance. So many decisions to make.

John and I walked around the badly overgrown lot with a friend who is a professor of horticulture and he told us what to save and what to cut down. I'm not good about asking for help, but I did and he was wonderfully helpful. John is eager to go after the poison ivy--something he has always gotten obsessed about. I think he also took in that our friend liked the house.