I’ll Get to That In a Minute

Let’s talk for a moment about the activity in which I’m currently engaged.  You know what I’m referring to.  It’s that thing you do when you need to do something important or boring or tedious or just downright odious, and you’re just loathe to get busy and do it.

Procrastination.

I’m a master at it.

All day long – heck, all weekend long – I’ve been putting off doing a report for work.  This particular report concerns a new client, so it’s one of our inital intake reports.  The interview on which the report is based was conducted by my boss and our newest staff member.  It consists of eleven pages of scrawled, handwritten notes which overflow the neat confines of our form fields, spill over into the margins and onto the back sides of the pages, and even appear on sheets of photocopied ruled paper which appeared to have been torn from the pages of a spiral notebook.

I planned hoped needed to have this report finished by tomorrow morning when I go into the office, so it could begin the review process which I’m quite sure will be lengthy and painful.

Alas, it sits here accusingly beside me, nary a word of it having been transcribed into type.

What have I been doing instead, you might ask, what important tasks have taken precedence in the last three days?

Let me see.  Saturday there was dog walking followed by a thorough brushing because they were going to the groomer later in the day, and then there was grocery shopping and a trip to Target for essentials like shampoo and aspirin and Pepcid, and then there was the drive to the groomers (which is way out in West Bloomfield for Pete’s sake!) and it’s really too far to come home so I waited in Caribou coffee with a stop over at Kohl’s; after the groomer, it was dinner time, and then the laundry I had forgotten and left in the dryer which was of course all wrinkly so it had be tumbled an tossed a bit longer.

Whew.

Oh, forgot, stopped at the neighbor’s to pick up some photos she wanted me to scan and copy for her, had a cup of coffee while we looked at her family pictures and I heard stories about her favorite brother who was killed in the war (that’s the Big One-WW2, in case you’re wondering.)

Sunday, it was church followed by lunch followed by running home to scan and print off those photos and then back over to the neighbors who loved them SO much we had more coffee and this time talked about books -her favorites, which are Silhouette romance.  Then, just enough time to dash home, feed the dogs, and drive out to my friend’s Christmas concert (which was way out in West Bloomfield for Pete’s sake!)  After that, it was dinner and then over to my friend Mary’s house (which is actually the house my aunt and uncle who just died lived in for all of their married lives, and now my cousin Mary is living there) to pick up some mail that belonged to my aunt’s estate.  By the time I got home (we had hot chocolate and not coffee) it was just time to watch Christmas at the White House, with Oprah.

Whew.

Today, well, there was rehearsal for Winter Concert at the middle school from 8:30 until 1:30, then picking Jim up at the tire store where he’s getting his Christmas present (four brand new tires for his 2 year old car, ho ho ho), and then coming home to print the labels for his business Christmas cards, clean up the kitchen, do some laundry, and practice a bit on the songs where I ran into trouble during rehearsal today.  Oh, plus I had to run down to my mom’s and pick up dinner (chicken casserole with mushrooms, topped with almonds and crushed potato chips, yummy) which she was kind enough to make for us) return a library book, listen to Jim have a long conversation with his former boss who wants to hire him to manage a project that somebody else at the company(who did not get laid off back in July like my husband did) has fouled up (and don’t get me started on that).  Much conversation has since ensued about said project, and oh, we had to back to the tire store and pick up the car, eat dinner, clean up the kitchen, finish up the laundry which I had forgotten in the dryer (again!)

Whew.

So now it’s 8:27.  Well, it was 7:52 when I sat down here at my desk and pulled that nasty pile of papers out of my work folder.  I suppose I could still get something done tonight, if not the whole report at least part of it.

But it’s time for the dogs’ bedtime snack, and then they like to have a ball game before bed, and – uh oh, there’s the phone  – gotta go! 

Be back later…promise.