Despite my anxiety about not having a job and not yet knowing what the next one will be, I confess: I was kind of excited about all the “free time” I would have with the kids still in daycare and nobody expecting me to show up and be creative every day from 9 to 6.
If you know me well, here is where you chuckle and say “fat chance.” It took two days to make my new to-do list. It’s a giraffe’s neck long. There are some things that can’t be put off, and some things I just won’t put off any longer.
I truly thought I would be able to spend my days focusing on the list, accomplishing one thing after another, then when the family comes home I would make dinner, clean up, get the kids to bed, and settle in for some recreational reading or mindless TV watching with Stewart before heading to bed and looking forward to doing it all again the next day. I did not realize that I have taken on so many tasks, all of importance to me, that I would continue to perform my nightly ritual of returning to the computer.
I think the problem is that once I took on the interesting full time job, I started spinning so fast like a hamster in a wheel that I am having trouble slowing down. Getting laid off while on vacation didn’t help – it was supposed to be relaxing, not stressful. I managed to enjoy myself but as usual, on the inside my frantic brain grapples with the uncertain future.
Someone once told me that when things get worrisome, check out how it is for less fortunate people. So tonight the item on the list that I am tackling is the one that challenged me the most recently: Help a Mother Out – two moms in the Bay Area, collecting diapers and giving people the opportunity to give. Point, click, help. I’m working on hooking them up in Los Angeles. If you know of anyone who does diaper drives or runs a diaper bank or needs the help of diaper drives or diaper banks, let’s all stand in a circle and hold hands, shall we? Email me (link above), find me on Twitter (button to the left), or just click on the HAMO badge I added in my new “Bleeding Heart” section. Better yet, get one for your blog here.
If I finish all this before 11, I might watch that episode of Oprah that I keep saying I’ll get to.
I find I still work better under pressure, even though my days of working in an ad agency are over. Today, for instance, I got more done than usual because I knew I ONLY had 2 hours between pick-ups/drop-offs when normally I might have a full 6 hours. Go figure. I guess that makes me completely dysfunctional.