I always have so much on my plate that I’ve developed a coping mechanism to save my sanity, which involves focusing on only the task that will have a major negative impact if I don’t complete it. The only things I manage to get done are the things that would result in being fired, served with a warrant, causing someone’s death, initiating financial collapse or foreclosure, or named the worst mom in the history of moms. Each day there are to-do list items that fit into those categories – if I don’t do this, the results will be catastrophic, or at least humiliating.
I haven’t always been this way. I used to be proactive and organized. I made lists that I actually checked things off of. They were to-do lists, not wish-i-could-do lists. I knew where to find every item I owned, instead of running out to buy another one because I don’t have a clue. I was on-time with birthday gifts. I did crafts. CRAFTS! I cleaned – I even washed windows! Now I’m lucky if I can keep most of the vermin away.
I feel like at this point – less than 1 week until departure (FOR A MONTH which is a really long time if you think about it), I should be starting to ramp up the preparations. But I haven’t quite reached that critical point yet – lately it’s not uncommon for me to be doing laundry at 2 a.m. with a business trip commencing at 6 a.m. I have passports, plane tickets, and immunizations – those would fit into the catastrophic category by now. The balls will be here Tuesday and the miscellaneous items (except the new culotte slip!) have arrived. I have the shuttle lined up to take us from the airport in Queretaro to SMA – I actually felt a little proactive doing that a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t want to forget.
I put the preparations aside this weekend because my bestie Sherry and her daughter Hannah were here and last night was the Annual Fool in the Pool bash. So making sure Adlani had underwear packed became less critical than hiding all of the clutter and baking rum cakes. If I showed up at the party without a rum cake the results could have been catastrophic. Yesterday we went on a tour of Harvard to see if Hannah might want to apply…it was AMAZING! The pool party was a big success on the LG Evaluation Scale which includes scoring in the categories of food, drinks, spontaneous nudity, laughter-induced peeing, and memorable moments to be rehashed the next day.
I had planned to get some hardcore packing done today but after some college drive-bys we ended up back at the Ce-Ment Pond and now I’m working on laundry, laundry, and more laundry. It is now officially crunch-time so I expect to get A LOT done this week.
Here’s Norah at the Ce-Ment Pond today, waiting out a rainstorm. Good practice for visiting Mexico during the rainy season!
