Today I am procrastinating. Procrastination is one thing I am very good at doing. If there is a task that lacks the spark that I might find self-satisfying, I am an expert at putting it at the end of my to-do list.
I need to do insurance stuff. We have been living without "stuff" insurance since we moved to SF. Last night while we were watching TV, the couch started shaking in that "is this the beginning of the BIG ONE??" way and I realized that in the event of THE BIG ONE, or even the small one, we would be woefully under insured. Woefully as in - -we don't even have coverage for a wooden spoon in the kitchen. Turns out that the "Big One" was just George shaking his foot back and forth. So after I began clutching the sides of the couch waiting for the tremor to get bigger and the house to slide off its foundation, I ended up just punching him in the arm and telling him to CUT IT OUT! Yet, it reminded me that I need to get on the horn and get some damn insurance.
So, now I need to hunt through our paperwork and locate the home inventory. We have this. People who move often always have this. An itemized inventory of every single thing in their homes. You need this in the event that all of your possessions are mistakenly dumped in to the ocean during their transit from one country to another. Containers of household goods have been known to fall off ships. Yet, while I know that we have this full and detailed inventory, I need to take the 15 excruciating minutes to try and locate it in the paper file that I surely labeled aptly at the time but is probably named "London" or "San Francisco" or "Whatnot" which will not make sense now but surely did then. Either that, or I need to navigate through copious computer files and programs to print a new one. Not appealing. Hence the lack of "spark" in the task.
I also need to make an appointment for the car to get its "check-up". They have written me a letter, which I ignored. They have had their automated calling center call me twice. I have ignored them. Why? First, we haven't yet achieved the full 5,000 miles necessary to warrant the service. But, more importantly, I am not eager to spend the morning hanging out in a coffee shop in a not-so-great part of SF without wheels. I suspect that they have a Lend-a-car program, but see how that falls in to the "no spark" category?
So, now that I have taken the time to write this tiny entry, I have successfully extended my procrastination period another 15 minutes. Go me. Now I will head off to clean the bathroom downstairs. It appears that I am willing to do most anything to avoid tackling the insurance issue or make an appointment for the car. My priorities are not aligned.
1 comment:
I don't know whether I love your blog because it's exactly how I look at things as well or because I can hear you say it word for word!! Both are indeed charming reasons alone.
For the record, however, I am a pro at procrastination. A pro-procrastinator, if you will. However, it's not so much about the spark for me as it is about spending money. And even this isn't really accurate because it's not like we can't afford what I usually need to be doing. This applies to the car for sure in that I don't go in there until we have reached 5,000 miles plus a hundred for good measure! It's the most amazing waiting room with bagels and coffee, free internet and CNN or even The View! Actually a pretty great way to kill an hour or so. Still, it is the last thing I do.
This fall, I dropped my trifocals at the football game and they scraped against the cement for all intents and purposes, ruining them. I am nearly blind without glasses but, I have yet to make the appt at Pearl Vision for a new pair. We even have insurance money already set aside that absolutely HAS to be spent on this kind of stuff and yet, it sits undone. Not to mention that I remain half blind.
However, my procrastination isn't always deliberate. Take that really cool digital frame you gave me for Christmas. I went to get the frame up and running one day by putting pictures on a flash drive. However, I quickly realized that the majority of my pictures were on my old laptop. Charlie had been bugging me to clean my stuff off of that computer so he could claim it as his own. So I had to make an appointment at Apple because it was clear that things were unorganized and there was surely a better way to do it. So when I finally got that together, I realized that my office was still overflowing with Christmas tidbits and in order to put the frame on the desk in the right place, it would be necessary to first clean off the desk and then redo all the various cords, etc in order to accommodate the new addition to my electrical outlet needs (think A Christmas Story kind of need). But in cleaning off my desk, I find myself needing to create several new file folders for various sports and senior year (colleges etc) stuff, but needed the actual files, plus a longer surge protected extention cord. While I am Office Max/depot, I decide that I should get a larger flashdrive since I have been made aware on just how many pictures I now have on my external hard drive (thru the help of Apple one-on-one sessions)and it would be nice to not be limited on how many pictures I could have on the frame.
Finally, this past Friday at approximately 11 pm, my desk was sufficiently clean enough, as was the rest of my office, that I was able to uploaded the pictures onto the larger flash drive and redid things so I'd have an outlet All of this just for a new picture frame on my desk!
I don't know what you'd call it, but it isn't an example of efficiency in the least!
All of this to say, I love my new frame!! Thanks!
Post a Comment