Skip to main content

1 Down. 1,264,674 to Go.

My to-do list lately has looked a little something like this:

  • Write 25 more articles for the real estate agent living in fantasy-land.
  • Clean off desk in classroom.
  • Wash enough underwear so you don't have to wear the 2-year old and 3 sizes-too-small stuff at the bottom of the drawer.
  • Catch up on detention list.
  • Call people for addresses for sister-in-law's baby shower.
  • Crochet two rows on cousin's baby's blanket.
  • Order take-out for dinner.
  • Update resume and call principals at local schools.
  • Buy gifts for cousins' children.
  • Write 25 more articles for real estate agent who thinks she has brilliant ideas.
  • Design sister-in-law's baby shower invitations.
  • Make it to GRE test on time and score at least 1000.
  • Count the change sitting in the computer fund can.
  • Write analysis paper for grad school application.
  • Make quilt for new neice.

Somewhere in here I am supposed to clean my house, which for the record, now has a 1/2 inch layer of dirt across the entire floor, this week's entire work wardrobe spread across the dining room table, and all the forks in the house sitting dirty in the sink. I think I lost the cat somewhere in the stack of papers on my desk.

I guess you could say it's a little chaotic, but this morning, at 11:46, I crossed one item off my list. As I drove away from the GRE testing center (with an acceptable score for grad school), my mind filled with far too many ideas. I've been so busy trying to keep up with mundane tasks, that I've pushed the creative endeavors to the side.

They immediately noticed the free space on my to-do list and moved right in. I was designing a summer dress, arranging for some photographs, and even putting together the "family history" wall in my hall way. My new business idea lobbied for a more prominent position. Book topics loomed.

It was an epic battle in my brain, and I couldn't help but notice these ideas clinging to my leg as I desperately tried to shake them free. Creativity can be forceful when it wants to be. That's why I am writing this instead of finishing my article about real estate marketing mistakes. Even with my to-do list, I'm still a slacker.

Comments

Christy said…
Hmmmm. Sounds veeeerrrry familiar.
Without taking the time and space for point-by-point solidarity, I would like to say that I do love how you broke the crochet down into manageable chunks. Two rows? Sounds do-able. Though, with me, as I'm sure it is with you, it is sometimes worse to have fifty million do-able chunks on my list than it is to have one big task.

Popular posts from this blog

Tough As Nails

I found "The Chub" last night. This is a small, thick spiral notebook that I had carried around with me for several weeks last winter and spring. Its sole purpose was to be an immediate reservoir for any brilliant ideas I had during the day. The only thing I ever wrote in there (besides grocery lists and bill schedules) was during my family's reunion-birthday-anniversary cruise last January. My words were interesting, and I clearly remembered writing them on the little boat that took my aunt, sister, and cousin to go snorkeling in the Bahamas. The funny part was that I wrote about how the breeze was making the weariness "seep from my bones". I read it yesterday while I was home from work. That is, after I was sent home for nearly fainting during a class. Apparently, the look of my skin was so bad that my students thought I was pulling a Halloween prank. While driving myself home, I was thinking about the recent events that led me to the afternoon and how embarra

Busy Days Ahead

It's been a busy week for me. I left my house at 4:30 Monday morning for my drive down south and pulled back in my driveway at 1:20 this morning. The days have been long, too, between working at the new school from 7:30 until 3:00 or 4:00 and then working at the new place until 9:00 or 10:00 each night. I now have callouses on my fingers and not one intact finger nail. I think I've also developed a new twitch somewhere on my face. One afternoon this week, I stood in the middle of our new living room and took in the sight of missing drywall, a growing hole in the floor and soaked up my husband's predictions that we still won't be ready to paint by the weekend. All I wanted to do was cry. All I felt was nothingness. Numbness. Anyone who has ever reached the point of numbness knows that it's scarier than feeling like you're falling apart. It's one step beyond feeling like you're falling apart. I couldn't help but wonder just what we had gotten ourselves

The Transformation Begins

Do you ever feel like your life is a movie? I hope so because I certainly do, complete with an occasional out-of-body experience and a soundtrack. Right now, I hear Journey in the background and see myself out running each morning, conquering the evil vacuum cleaner, and throwing away my old flannel shirt. The last few days were interesting. My husband and I had few good fights...and lots of laughs. I can't help but think they were related. I know they are. The fights were about establishing boundaries. We finished our budget for June and updated our to do list. At the end of the day, he was completed something he had to have done, and I was working on final edits for my book. I'm really proud of us. We looked at our situation together, set some goals, and we reached them. I'm really proud of him, too. He's the kind of man who doesn't stop until he's completed what he had in mind. I love that tenacity. I guess that's what makes us a good match. I see the big