BUZZ BUZZ Once There Was...

11 years and I'm still only just noticing things i should have known.

"... 'Quite Correct!' he shrieked triumphantly. 'I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit.'

The Humbug dropped his needle and stared in disbelief while Milo and Tock began to back away slowly.

'Don't try to leave,' he ordered with a menacing sweep of his arm, 'for there's so very much to do, and you still have over eight hundred years to go on the first job.'

'But why do only unimportant things?' asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them.

'Think of all the trouble it saves,' the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin--if he could grin at all. 'If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff [your pencil], you'd never know how much time you were wasting.'

As he spoke, he tiptoed slowly toward them with his arms outstretched and continued to whisper in a soft, deceitful voice, 'Now do come and stay with me. We'll have so much fun together. There are things to fill and things to empty, things to take away and things to bring back, things to pick up and things to put down, and besides all that we have pencils to sharpen, holes to dig, nails to straighten, stamps to lick, and ever so much more. Why, if you stay here, you'll never have to think again--and with a bit of practice, you can become a monster of habit, too."

Norton Juster. The Phantom Tollbooth. 1961. Pgs. 212-214.

Thank you, Mr. Juster. It's like you predicted the internet.


Aside from Mr. Juster's amazingly prophetic passage, it occurred to me as I wrote my list of 'things I want to be sure to do,' that I set myself up with stuff like this ALL THE TIME. Is that why I get involved in internet groups? No matter HOW fun they are or how awesome the people in them are? Is this why I play in fandom? To keep from writing my own stories with my own characters? To keep from having to take some kind of responsibility for my time?

Is this a problem to be fixed, or a normal and (mostly) rational coping/socializing mechanism?



Mom used to say, "Moderation in everything." Since she said it A LOT, I'm assuming that the lesson wasn't any easier for her to master than it is for me.

So. I'm at work, starving, and ready to scream. Things that had been done are now back on the list. And of course, new things were added. I'm thinking about calling in some of our slave boys part-time workers and offering to pay them in store credit if they help me slog through this stuff.

TO DO AT WORK:

Straighten retail shelves
Remove non-inventory items from the main sales floor
Make SIGNS for during the sale.
Sort complete dross from worthwhile back issues.
Alphabetize worthwhile back issues
Make Sets of worthwhile back issues
Pull all Harvey Comics
Pull comics from off 'special demands' lists
Track down the orders AND the ordered items for Special orders
Clean under front desk
Sort mail.
Ask Kevin and Adam to take their personal stuff home.
Cover boxes backs that show in front window.
Double check box owners against customer listings
Go through alphabetized boxes and pull incentive covers and vertigo titles.
Numerically organize alphabetized boxes.



Oh. And b/c teachers all want their assignments BEFORE thanksgiving break, here's my list of SCHOOL stuff that's gotta get done b/c that's running around in my head and mixing up with the store stuff. The combo makes me physically ill. Let's segregate, shall we? Stars are due by Tuesday.


To Do for School
*ESI 103 Homework #8
ESI 103 B.O.B. outline.
ESI 103 Burn CD of Photos
ESI 104 Chapter 1 Outline.
ESI 104 Chapter 2 Outline.
ESI 104 Chapter 3 Outline.
ESI 104 Chapter 7 Outline.
ESI 104 Chapter 8 Outline.
ESI 104 Chapter 12 Outline.
*ESI 104 Article Report.
*ESI 104 Presentation #6
ESI 104 Marketing Plan
ESI 104 Read and Report on Marketing Book
HEA 150 Read Chapter 17
HEA 150 Read Chapter 18
HEA 150 Read Chapter 19
HEA 150 Read Chapter 20
HEA 150 Read Chapter 21
HEA 150 Read CPR Chapter
*BPA 111 LYC #4
BPA 111 LYC #5
BPA 111 LYC #6
*BPA 111 B.O.B. Report #2
*BPA 111 B.O.B. Power Point Corrections
*BPA 111 Chapter 10 Review Questions
BPA 111 Chapter 12 Review Questions
BPA 111 Chapter 13 Review Questions
BPA 111 Chapter 14 Review Questions
*BPA 111 Take Home Exam
BPA 162 Read Chapter 4
BPA 162 Read Chapter 5
BPA 162 Read Chapter 6
BPA 162 Read Chapter 7
BPA 162 Read Chapter 8
BPA 162 Read Chapter 9
*BPA 162 Resume
BPA 162 Presentation




And that'll get me to the end of the semester. Cool huh? To see the finish line? That's always SO nice. OH. and while i'm making lists, here's the stuff that has to happen in my personal life, b/c I tend to freak out and forget about it until it rises up and hits me in the face.

To Do Personally
Laundry
Bills
Catch up on NaNoWrimo
Practice Inking
Vacuum Room
Clean Bathroom
Get the $$ together to get Kitty's vaccines
Get the $$ together to go grocery shopping.
(kitty litter, lunch meat, toothpaste, oatmeal)
Go to the Gym more often
Tend Online community obligations.
Put away all the family photos
Clean out my car's trunk

I wonder if my list of "to do" for myself is so much shorter b/c i'm not thinking of things i need to do to take care of myself or if i'm already doing the stuff that HAS to get done, and doing a pretty good job of keeping up.

That's a terribly constructed sentence.



I'm hungry. Gonna call out for something hot. The store is frigid.

I don't know that having the lists is helping this time. I don't feel any lighter for getting all this out there. I'm thinking I'm just hungry. My attitude almost always improves when i'm fed.

I'd put all this under a cut, but i need to SEE it every time i log in to stay motivated. Sorry about your friends' page. (it's visible to you guys so that I have to be accountable....even if none of you're gonna pull me up on the rug about any of it.)

Of course, if anyone local feels like helping, I will NOT turn you away. Thing is, though? I've been leaning on nearby (and close, dear) friends a LOT lately. So i'm not gonna ask anybody personally. No one has to be put on the spot, or feel weird about things. I can and will get things done. Help, while appreciated is totally voluntary (as always, but seriously, I gotta stop ASKING when it's stuff like my JOB). Thanksgiving break is coming... most of that school stuff can happen then. And the sale for the store will be over, so that stuff'll be off the list too.

What's wrong with me? Have i bitten off more than i can chew? Can i just not tell people 'no'? Am I doing MYSELF in with stupid amounts of fussy perfectionism? Am I a slacker that only gets INTO situations like all that b/c I get lazy and let too many things slide? Do YOU GUYS have 'to do' lists like this?


Oh. And today marks 9 years that Mom's been gone. Maybe that's why i'm feeling less than energized. I blame her a lot though. Maybe i'm just hungry.

I do have a lot of my Christmas shopping done. I'm very pleased with my selections. Though, really... i've not found the most perfectly useful and joy-inspiring things for the people i MOST want to give perfectly useful and joy-inspiring things to (regardless of the season or holiday). Phooey. It's another month yet. Something will pop up. I'm sure.

I'm buying pizza. It's bad for me, but you can't stop me.

nothing like a national disaster to motivate you... I called my estranged family maybe a half hour ago. Thank you guys for posting about the fires. I did not realize they were worse than usual this year.

My cousin is attending a college IN San Diego proper, and on stand-by to evacuate. I spoke with her mother and father who live in the San Diego suburbs, on the other side of the same band of fire that's got their daughter blocked in. She can't just 'come home.' Their home is currently safe, but if things spread, they'll be on stand-by too.

My OTHER aunt and her daughters are living near another edge... she could not go to work today b/c her bank branch is in an evacuated zone. However, she spoke with my first aunt earlier today, so all anyone can do is knock on wood.

...though perhaps knocking on things that don't burn would be better.


I WILL keep calling. Falling off the face of the earth is something I get down on Dad for. ... and I'm doing it to them. I wouldn't be arrogant enough to think that California catching fire (more-so than usual) was some kind of cosmic intervention to get me to PICK UP THE FUCKING PHONE AND CALL PEOPLE WHO LOVE ME AND WORRY ABOUT ME. By the same time? This is a chance to make the change permanent. My mother used to call both coasts on Sunday, since we didn't live near EITHER half of the family while i was growing up. Gonna take a leaf outta her book.

*nods*

Prayers and/or good thoughts guys! For my newly-recontacted family...


PS
this is kinda dumb, b/c she's underground AND cremated. But I do hope mom's grave area isn't on fire. ...not that i wouldn't trade her PLOT being on fire for my live cousins and aunts and uncles all being safe... but. These are the irrational things you consider around bedtime.