Am I bipolar?

 

Sunday night one of my best friends from college, Mara, came to dinner.  She lives in Arizona so I usually only see her a couple of times a year, but whenever she is in town she always comes over to drink wine with Louie and I.  After we drank our chardonnay, ate salmon and she helped me clean up Tiara’s mess and played basketball with the girls I showed her all the work I accomplished over the weekend.  As you remember from last week I was on a mission to get the outside of my house in order.  I showed her how I “magic sponged” all the white paint on the front of my house, the rain gutters and all the plastic lattice work in my backyard.  I also trimmed all the plants, planted more plants, weeded and washed the windows, screens, and the entire house. 

 

 

As I walked her out to her car, she looked at me and said “Have you considered the possibility you might be Bipolar?”  “What?”  I was stunned, I had never ever thought about myself being Bipolar.  I mean I know I am a little crazy, but not real crazy. She then explained that it was a good thing.  Not bipolar enough to need meds but enough to get lots of stuff done all the time.  A friend from Arizona recently suggested that Mara herself was bipolar and after thinking about it she realized a lot of us moms are “good bipolar.”  I personally thought my bouts of mania were hormonally based like when you start “nesting” at the end of your pregnancy.  Well I was a psychology major in college and I just did a little research and I am pretty sure we aren’t bipolar, Mara.  The thing is I wasn’t going to argue with Mara, because she is one of the smartest people I know and I would certainly lose any argument with her.  In college we both took genetics and I never missed a class and was always studying.  I barely scraped by with a “B” but Mara who didn’t always show up to class and only did the reading and didn’t study, received an “A”.  She kept telling me, “it is common sense Tiffani, if you just think about it logically it is super easy.”  Good advice, Mars, if only everything was that simple.  I love having friends who are smarter than me because I can always learn something from them.  They keep me thinking. 

Either way, today I am exhausted and haven’t been able to get much done after my 4 days of non stop cleaning and cooking, apparently the mania phase is over.  Tiara woke me up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours, but I am more tired than normal.  I even went back to sleep with her this morning.  So Karen, when you asked me the other day if I ever nap with Tiara, my answer is: yes, today I did.

Off to a graduation party with my girls.  Hopefully, Tiara will be on her best behavior.  Wish me luck!!!