When All Else Fails . . .

... rely on someone else for ideas on how to keep this blog going.

I follow She Just Walks Around With It, who, I am happy to report (if only for my own consolation), has also been a little slow on the updating of the posts (granted, she has two kids, one of whom is a newborn). Anyway, this month, she was inspired by Fat Mum Slim to do a photo-of-the-day post on her blog. I too have decided to join in on this idea, albeit a few days late (surprise, surprise).*

[*Ed Note: I started this post on March 3 and tried to continue it on March 4. But I realized that a post all about photos would be a bit of a chore, since it just so happens that I accidentally deleted all my photos last month. So before I can finish the post, I have to scrounge up photos by stealing them off Mr. J's computer, Picasa, my phone, Snapfish, Facebook, and anywhere else I can get them. Then, on March 5, I came downstairs to start work, and EEK, my Mac wouldn't start. No fan. No Mac bingbong noise. No nothing. So off to MacLife I went. Now, more than a week later, I have my Mac back, better, stronger, faster ... but still no pictures. Time to scrounge together those photos so I can finally finish this post before the photo-a-day month ends. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.]

So without anymore further ado, my photos of the day(s):

March 1 -- Up, which happens to be one of Mr. J's favorite movies, so I chose his niece flying through the air during the Kite Festival at Bondi Beach (at least I think that's when this was taken).

March 2 -- Fruit: OK so there isn't any fruit right now. But these vineyards at Bittner Winery produced some mighty tasty wines, which we enjoyed during our 2nd Annual Post-Thanksgiving Snake River Winery tour ... which you would already know something about if I were ever to update this blog with our daily events.


March 3 -- Neighborhood: Mr. J, cruising the 'hood. Nuff said.


March 4 -- Bedside: This one was a stretch. If I actually took the time to charge the camera battery to go upstairs and take a shot of my bedside table, this post would never be done. So instead, it's me inside bed, taken after a flight from the US to Australia (that is my excuse for the ridiculously red eyes, and I am sticking to it).


March 5 -- A Smile: This photo will make my laugh until the day I die. My two darling nieces were both smiling and posing nicely for this photo, but as luck would have it, as I "clicked" the shutter on my phone, Miss Ella swung the umbrella bit, smacking Megan in the back of the head. Purely by accident. Of course. Can't you just tell by her innocent expression?


Since I am so far behind, I am going to do five photos a day until I catch up. If my math is right, which it probably isn't, I may be able to get these all in before March 31.

Procrastination

I have a project that was due three hours ago, and I have ... oh ... about three hours to go on it. And I promised I would have it to him first thing in the morning, East Coast time.

So, of course, I am here in Blogland instead of plowing through the last half of the book.

Why did I not finish it today?

Well, there are many reasons. For one, until late last night (when I was lying in bed thinking, "Hmm, that's strange that he said it was due on the 25th. The 25th is a Sunday, and nothing is ever due on a Sunday."), I thought it wasn't due until the end of the week. So first thing this morning (after fighting the battle of the flies in my kitchen), I checked the due date and realized with much much much dismay that it was due today at 6 p.m.

So you would think I would sit right down and get to work.

You would think that, but you would be wrong.

You see, tonight was Book Club night, and I was hosting. And last Thursday, when I threw a little get-together for some girlfriends here at my place, a friend showed up 15 minutes EARLY (?!?) and then made a comment about how much of a procrastinator I am. Ummmm, excuse me. You show up early while I am still prepping. You don't offer to help. You don't bring anything to the potluck. And yet I am the one with the bad time management skills (which, OK, yes, I do have bad time management skills ... but hey, at least wait until the official party start time to accuse me of not being prepared). Anyway. Long story longer, I was a little defensive and absolutely determined to have everything all set to go tonight as soon as that same friend showed up (and, by the way, she showed up early again ... with a huge bag of peaches for me to either can or freeze or turn into salsa or something but nothing to contribute in terms of food ... which really is OK, but still). So off I went to the grocery store this a.m. to prep everything for the pasta salad. Then I came home and cleaned up all the fly carcasses and cooked up dinner. Then a friend stopped by for a visit. And then Mr J came home for lunch. Which left me with a whopping 2 hours in which to cram in a 10-hour project.

So now here I am, hoping to the high heavens that our incredibly obnoxious neighbors decide to shut down their "musical" jam fest before Mr. J comes home while also thinking about possibly sitting down to actually finish the project.

Aren't you glad I stopped by for this scintillating little chat?

So much to do

I am so swamped with work.

So, of course, I am procrastinating by reading blogs, paying bills (boo!), depositing money (yay!), catching up on emails, and contemplating cleaning house.

Deadlines, schmedlines. That's what 3 a.m. is for.

It's raining ... again. But I am not complaining. At least the 24-hour sustained hurricane-force winds have subsided. Everything is starting to bud, which makes me so very excited. The lilacs, the pear trees, our little apple tree, the elm and the ash, the maples. Pretty, pretty. And the tiny little crocuses. Croci? Or at least that's what I think they are. I don't even remember them from last year. More pretty, pretty; all yellow and purple. Hooray for spring--even if snow is in the forecast. I'll take what I can get.

I had a great post about sense memories all made up in my head the other day. But now I can't remember half of it. I really need to get a little notebook or voice recorder or something. When it all comes back to me, I'll get back in here.

For now, procrastination time is over. Time to focus on the Opportunity Finance Network financial report.

Ugh ... is it any wonder I'm procrastinating??

Intimidation

So I spend my procrastinating hours blog-hopping. My, oh my, are there some fabulous bloggers out there. Witty, funny, smart, insightful, a joy to read (is that even a word?).* And I think that is why I have been so quiet here. That and the fact that now that I have an audience (of 1), I feel the need to write something a little more meaningful than my usual whiney-ness. Well, all that AND the fact that I have spent the last couple weeks essentially chained to my desk or cooking or walking the dogs. Nothing earth-shattering. I don't even have great stories about appliance mass suicide and the good things that come from that. :-)

Maybe (most likely) it's that perfectionist in me who wants everything to be amazing, world-wise, hilarious, thought-provoking, maybe even poignant. All at the same time. Every time. All the time. I don't know why I expect this when I'm not that way in real life. Every now and then I'm one of those things for a few minutes. Sometimes even for a whole afternoon! (though I don't think I'm ever poignant)

So, how do I let go and write? Pretend like no one is reading and just say what I want to say? Get some get-started prompts from some how-to-write book or website? Or just take a few minutes out of the day to actually think about things, look around, observe, witness, reflect, and see what I see?

Anyway, subject change (to prevent this from becoming too whiney): Can I just say how incredibly excited I am to be going "home" for the holidays? I cannot wait to see my three little nieces, my cousins, my folks, my sister, my Nana. Well, OK, everyone!! I am not in the Christmas spirit AT ALL yet. Every time I hear a Christmas song on the radio, I scream in aggravation (really) and then have this near-violent knee-jerk reaction to change the station. Mr. J finds it all very hilarious, as he doesn't really pay attention and probably doesn't realize half the songs are carols, as they are being sung by Sheryl Crow or some such thing. Perhaps if they hadn't started playing these songs before Thanksgiving, I'd be a little more forgiving. Perhaps. But I do love Christmas time, and I am very excited for it all. I am hoping for snow and walks in the snow and maybe getting to the lake, only to find it frozen over with that perfect-for-ice-skating glasslike ice (not that that has happened for years). But even if it's 70 degrees and sunshiney, I can't wait. I love Boise, but I miss my family. Why can't they all just pack up and move out here?

OK, enough procrastinating. Fa la la la la.

*Disclaimer: Each of these blogs is all the words mentioned; I did not categorize them according to an overriding characteristic. Just seemed like a fun way to give a shout out to a few of the fabulous women out there who are entertaining me these days.

Procrastination Puzzler

How is it that when I have fifty million things on my plate, as I did last week, I can find time every day to post to my little blog? But when I only have fifty things to do, I can't seem to keep this up? Must be one of those weird time-warp, space-time continuum doohickeys. Or perhaps we should wait until tomorrow, when my fifty things of the week are due a day early because one of my very bestest buds is coming to visit, and I need to make scones and salsa and guac and clean house. I'm sure tomorrow, when all that is going on, I'll have all the time in the world for posting. (And no, I don't NEED to make fresh scones and salsa and various other tasty treats, but I WANT to, quite possibly at the expense of my ever-growing pile of work.)

Reclamation

I was just performing my morning ritual of procrastination (oops, I mean browsing other people's blogs), when I came across this at Hidden Camera Show. I don't know if stealing from another site counts as a daily post, but this captured exactly how I am feeling right now and what I want for the coming weeks, months, year (note: the photo is all mine):

In fact, it [NaBloPoMo] is just one act in a series of things I kind of want to do with my life. That is, acts of reclaiming. With my atrocious study- and work habits, days just kind of drift, without me feeling like I'm in charge. So, I would like to (drumroll, please) reclaim my Sundays. Oh, glorious Sundays! A day of having a lie-in and a big breakfast, the Sunday paper, maybe going for a walk or into town, reading a good book just for fun, maybe watching a film, and so on and so forth. I honestly think that I need a day in my week which is simply 'me-time', no work no nothing. If I plan my week and my work carefully enough, I am sure having my Sundays off would be feasible. Imagine that, being able to sit around and not feel guilty about not doing any work!

Dear, Departed Chester
illustrating the epitome of a proper lie-in

Of course, the trick is that whole word plan. I need to work on enhancing that P-word in my life and eradicating the other P-word (procrastination, of course).