Thursday, March 23, 2006
Time Is All We Have
I spent today in a time management seminar. See how well I'm managing my time now? I'm blogging. This actually is an improvement, because I've been very skimpy on my posts lately. When I got home, I opened my emails, and deleted or responded to every new one. (The other 1000 or so will take a little more work -- they didn't tell us how to catch up, just how to manage things from here forward.) If I follow all their recommendations for 21 days, supposedly I will do it for life. They promise I will be more efficient and productive, calmer, happier, and beautiful. Okay, I made that last one up.
I could handle either work or the rest of my life, but the two together have gotten to be too much. On Sunday, I am giving the Little Angel a birthday party at Club Libby Lu's, a place where they give little girls a makeover -- you know, glitter, sunglasses, pink hair. She has wanted to do it for years, and she is probably not going to think it's so cool for much longer. The party is late afternoon. After I made the reservations (read: took the opening they had left), it hit me that I would have to feed these girls dinner. No problem, march them over to the food court, right? Wrong! The food court closes early on Sunday. So I'm still trying to figure out how and where I'm going to feed them, and then there's the little matter of the birthday cake... Ah, but there's no problem, I will just make the proper notations in my planner and everything will magically work out. (Hey, that's what they said!)
Late next week the Professor and I are going to Costa Rica for a few days. I hope FTS doesn't read this, because he will think I am nuts, but I am supposed to be in Snowmass CO right now, skiing. I changed the tickets because I couldn't squeeze everything in and the pressure was getting to me. Anyway, I just did the snow thing in January, and I'm ready for beaches and jungles.
Stormii's surgery is April 12th. When the doctor changed the date, I had to change the plane tickets for her mother and grandmother. Continental wanted an additional $100 per ticket to make the change. I had to talk to a supervisor and do one heck of a selling job to convince her to waive the fee. My feeling is, if the doctor changes the date again, he's paying the $200.
Then we have Easter on the 16th, so I'm buying up goofy toys for the Easter baskets. Even the teenagers (which is what we mostly have now, come to think of it) still get baskets, and still want toys. Then on the 20th, we are going to Savannah for a long weekend. I have been begging to go there for years, but the Professor has always told me the tickets were too high or the schedules too bad. Gee, they're cheaper than the tickets to Denver were, and the flight leaves after work for Savannah and gets me home at 8:00 Monday morning. Amazing what you can learn when you do it yourself!
I know all this sounds like fun, and it will be, but it also comes with a fair amount of work and planning and organizing ... oh yeah, that's why I took that time management seminar. I'll give them a good 21-day run for their money. If I can get through all this without having to run around like a mad woman, I will be a true believer.
I have to leave you with some quotes from a video we saw today. I forgot a couple of them, so please ignore the gaps.
What is the value of a year? Ask a woman who was just diagnosed with cancer.
What is the value of a month? Ask the parents of a premature baby.
What is the value of a week? Ask the lovers who have been apart.
What is the value of an hour? Ask an hourly worker who has to feed his family.
What is the value of a minute? Ask the man who just missed the last train of the day.
What is the value of a second? Ask the person who survived a car wreck.
What is the value of a millisecond? Ask the runner who came in second -- or ask the one who won the gold medal.
I could handle either work or the rest of my life, but the two together have gotten to be too much. On Sunday, I am giving the Little Angel a birthday party at Club Libby Lu's, a place where they give little girls a makeover -- you know, glitter, sunglasses, pink hair. She has wanted to do it for years, and she is probably not going to think it's so cool for much longer. The party is late afternoon. After I made the reservations (read: took the opening they had left), it hit me that I would have to feed these girls dinner. No problem, march them over to the food court, right? Wrong! The food court closes early on Sunday. So I'm still trying to figure out how and where I'm going to feed them, and then there's the little matter of the birthday cake... Ah, but there's no problem, I will just make the proper notations in my planner and everything will magically work out. (Hey, that's what they said!)
Late next week the Professor and I are going to Costa Rica for a few days. I hope FTS doesn't read this, because he will think I am nuts, but I am supposed to be in Snowmass CO right now, skiing. I changed the tickets because I couldn't squeeze everything in and the pressure was getting to me. Anyway, I just did the snow thing in January, and I'm ready for beaches and jungles.
Stormii's surgery is April 12th. When the doctor changed the date, I had to change the plane tickets for her mother and grandmother. Continental wanted an additional $100 per ticket to make the change. I had to talk to a supervisor and do one heck of a selling job to convince her to waive the fee. My feeling is, if the doctor changes the date again, he's paying the $200.
Then we have Easter on the 16th, so I'm buying up goofy toys for the Easter baskets. Even the teenagers (which is what we mostly have now, come to think of it) still get baskets, and still want toys. Then on the 20th, we are going to Savannah for a long weekend. I have been begging to go there for years, but the Professor has always told me the tickets were too high or the schedules too bad. Gee, they're cheaper than the tickets to Denver were, and the flight leaves after work for Savannah and gets me home at 8:00 Monday morning. Amazing what you can learn when you do it yourself!
I know all this sounds like fun, and it will be, but it also comes with a fair amount of work and planning and organizing ... oh yeah, that's why I took that time management seminar. I'll give them a good 21-day run for their money. If I can get through all this without having to run around like a mad woman, I will be a true believer.
I have to leave you with some quotes from a video we saw today. I forgot a couple of them, so please ignore the gaps.
What is the value of a year? Ask a woman who was just diagnosed with cancer.
What is the value of a month? Ask the parents of a premature baby.
What is the value of a week? Ask the lovers who have been apart.
What is the value of an hour? Ask an hourly worker who has to feed his family.
What is the value of a minute? Ask the man who just missed the last train of the day.
What is the value of a second? Ask the person who survived a car wreck.
What is the value of a millisecond? Ask the runner who came in second -- or ask the one who won the gold medal.
2 Comments:
i liked those quotes, my kids were all premmies. even a week can make sure a difference.
I'm radiating admiration for you for doing a time-management seminar. I have progressed slightly from Flylady's "Where are your shoes?!", in that I've bought a planner ... but I still haven't got round to writing everything down in it yet :). Enjoy Costa Rica!
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