I’m going to start making lists
July 3, 2007 | Filed under: Familia, Humdrum
” Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible. ” ~George Claude Lorimer
I, being one of the most flighty individuals that ever graced the earth, find list making to be some sort of foreign activity reserved for special occasions. “Sticking to task” is not my forte and is something that very boring people do. I like to fly by the seat of my pants and to delve into something and then move onto the next thing. I tell myself that I have tons of time and then procrastinate further.
I try to make it sound so very charming and endearing: “Oh, how I love to just put all of my cares into the wind…live life as it comes. How lovely.” But really my lack of process only leads to dire stress and pain and tears and excessive consumption of beer and hand wringing. It’s just so very awful and so I end up lying in bed until the wee hours praying fervently to whichever deity will listen, for relief and giving promises of becoming a better and more altruistic person in return for relieving me of my self induced stress.
G leaves for Ghana on Wednesday. That would be the Wednesday roughly 36 hours from today. I thought he left Friday and when he said that he was leaving on Wednesday with nary a malaria pill or t-shirt packed, my heart dropped into my stomach for him. My cousin and I both interrogated him as to where exactly his list was. He HAD to have a list. How does one just go to Ghana without a very long list of things to pack? It’s not like you walk out onto the streets of Accra and lo and behold there’s a Target just in case you forget anything. It’s GHANA. I kept repeating this to him over and over again.
“Chill the fuck out. I packed for Las Vegas the night before. I have everything I need it just needs to go into a bag”
People, here is a good time to pause and well…list…the stringent differences between Las Vegas and Ghana. The first being the lack of an Hermes store and free alcohol while playing nickel slots. Also a lack of big and tall stores for my linebacker sized brother.
I kept sitting here talking to my cousin about why he didn’t have a fucking list. Ok fine, I’m not the most organized person in the world but I feel that leaving the country requires focus and list making and making sure that one is well equipped with anti-diarrheal medication. Then she – in her uber mom mode – started rattling off her various lists: one for tonight, one for tomorrow morning and one for tomorrow afternoon. Her list for tonight includes “going to bed early.”
“I can’t tell you the rush I get every time I get to cross something off. It’s exhilarating. You’ll see, once you have children, you’ll be a list maker.”
I’ll question the validity of that statement until I do have children of my own. But for now, I just want to remove G from the trance of Engaged and Underaged and remind him of what malaria parasites can do and that maybe, just maybe, he might want to at least write down ‘bug spray’ and ‘mosquito net’ before he returns with hypoglycemia and renal failure.
Kristabella says:
Oh man. I must just be a nerd because I LOVE lists and crossing things off. Such joy. And yet? Am not a mother.
But I am a Virgo. And we supposedly like things like that. Or something.
Dagny says:
I would be just as panicked as you are. Probably more so. Because I am a huge list maker. If I am going on a trip, I usually start making the list weeks beforehand so that I can review and revise — just in case I’ve forgotten something. Hope all turns out OK on the packing front.
Maria says:
Fingers crossed that the packing goes well.
I am such a tremendous nerd about lists that my stomach was in knots reading this entry. I HATE surprises, love organization, and luvre LISTS. It stems from having a mother who is ubber disorganized. I like to give people nice/pretty pads and pens to entice them to make lists.
*pixie* says:
“I can’t tell you the rush I get every time I get to cross something off. It’s exhilarating.”
Yes.Yes.Yes.
bloggadocio says:
weird. was just writing a post about lists, myself.
Abigail says:
I love writing lists so much that I’m meeting someone in twenty minutes so I can write lists for her. Truly. When people ask me what I want to do long term, I tell them I don’t know. But the truth is I just want to make lists. And tell people what to do.
gorillabuns says:
i sometimes write a list for shopping but then, i lose this list in the black hole called my car. i proceed to purchase anything and everything not scrawled on this said list. this because i usually find lists, trash, stray barbie heads among other things, underneath my seat. clean the car is usually number one on all my lists.
GreenCanary says:
Sorry girl, I can’t support you on the list-making thing. I LOVE lists. I put “make list” on my list just so I can cross it off when done. Sometimes I put “breathe” on there, too. Hey, we all need a freebie every once in a while.
Jay says:
Boys are like that. They always forget stuff, sometimes the really, really important stuff, but the difference is, they don’t freak out about it. They just get to Ghana and laugh about not having any pants.
Gin says:
OMG. I am so obnoxious about lists. I even have lists about lists. I so badger my husband before each trip like “where’s your list?” “what are YOU packing”" what if you FORGET something important and don’t have money to replace it?”. I’m terrible. This was hilarious. BTW I love reading your blog. Like daily. And I’m just saying that like a stalker. I’m not. Just a rambler.
Spazz says:
See, making lists IS a form of procrastination. If you make a list, you can wait even longer to do the things you’re supposed to. For example, if you have the list ready for all the things you need at Target, you can run in ten minutes before they close and still pick up everthing you need (although not everything you want because it’s Target and that would just be ridiculous).