Life Lessons, Redux

[llcoolvad]

Why do you always have to learn life lessons more than once before they stick?? Seriously.

I've been really busy at work lately — kind of crazy-busy, which isn't normal. I have about six projects going on outside of my normal workload, and while I am making progress every day, not one of them is done to the point that I can toss my notes and cross it off my to-do list.

I also have the last seven classes of the semester to prepare for right now. I taught this class once before, so I have ideas and I could recycle some stuff, but I'm at a weird point right now that I hate what I'm teaching and so I can't think creatively about it.

I also have a few projects at home that I need to finish soon; pretty much before the holidays. Of which the first is in a week.

So naturally yesterday I went to lunch and then the movies with P (saw "The Depahted" and reveled in the mostly-decent Bahstan accents — and the overall Scorsese awesomeness), bought a new shinyshiny 80GB iPod (my old one finally died), and spent the rest of the night playing with said toy.

Today? Woke up at a reasonable time (it *is* my day off, 10am is more than early enough), went grocery shopping and ran errands, came home, played with shinyshiny toy again, then went to S&V's place for dinner and chatting. All good, right? Relaxation, friends, food, fun!

Except...
I have to train a roomful of consultants tomorrow and did no laundry so I had nothing decent-looking to wear. I have to teach a class full of students tomorrow night and had nothing prepared to teach them. Around MIDNIGHT tonight I decided it might be a nice idea to stop watching television and get my ass in gear, and what time did I finish my prep for tomorrow? 1am. Whole thing took me an hour. Which is usually what happens when I finally concentrate on stuff and stop procrastinating. I could have enjoyed my whole weekend if I just did all that shit FIRST!

(I am no miracle worker, of course. I pulled the stuff for school out of the textbook's lab material (I rarely resort to this, but what the heck); and it turns out that my closet is filled with treasures; some nice-looking stuff I never wear because, well, I don't have to! So there.)

When will I learn? Work first, play second. Enjoy play more. Stop stressing. I should have learned this in college. Or grad school. Or any one of my jobs. How many times do I need to keep learning this?????? Bad brain.

Comments

[p-j-cleary.livejournal.com]

Well, at least you took the right lesson out of it. Me, I would have thought, "It only takes 1 hour of prep to be ready for both classes, and I have extra stuff to wear? I don't ever have to prepare for anything again!"

[ozymandiasism.livejournal.com]

I am becoming quite the opposit these days.... I put EVERYTHING in my calendar and I plan WAY ahead. I started planning on MLK weekend *3* weeks ago (when P was still in LA); I put down "six feet under", "top chef", "l&o: svu AND ci" on my palm calendar, oh, and "csi", and MASCAR; every friday is listed as "pay day" and every 1st of the month is "do timesheet on extensity".

I REALLY should go into project management. then again, I'll get wicked (yes, I said wicked) pissed because no one can ever catch up with me.

[ozymandiasism.livejournal.com]

oh and I LOVE my icon! :)

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

And I don't even know who it is!

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

I plan way ahead, too! And my calendar is stacked to the brim with reminders. I knew all that stuff was coming...I just didn't want to do any of it!

I could teach a master's course in Procrastination.

[ozymandiasism.livejournal.com]

yes, I aslo color code my entries based on various categories :)