The above cartoon reminds me of my grandmother. From time to time she would say, “I’m going on a diet…tomorrow.” It was a joke, of course. She believed in enjoying life, and food was an important part of it. So she had many happy years of eating before she died at the age of 98.
I’m interested in different things than she was…and I probably wouldn’t have been as lucky as she was if I had adopted her eating habits… but she taught me an invaluable life lesson:
Have you ever noticed that some of the things on your “To Do” list were really put there by other people? And that you really wanted to do something completely different? What did you do? How did it turn out for you? (I’ve done it many times. and it turned out surprisingly well.)
Whats a “to do” list?
Seriously, I try to accommodate what she wants and needs and not procrastinate on those things.
Sometimes I even surprise her.
Mike,
Actually there are a lot of things I don’t procrastinate about. A few days ago I saw some Reese’s Peanut Butter Easter Eggs in the store. What?! They weren’t even waiting until after Valentine’s Day. But when I thought about it later it dawned on me I did need to order Andy’s Bunny Basket eggs before they sold out. So I went ahead and ordered them. It doesn’t pay to mess around with the important things in life. 😉
ALL my to do lists are put in by others! You know how I tackle them too. Efficiently and with the minimum stress to myself! Left to myself, I have no such lists at all.
One of my biggest tasks not accomplished is currently biting me yet again on a b*m…moving!
Ever since, I basically moved in here in late 1994, I have talked on and off again about moving…and since the initial flatmates who thought this place was great the moved out anyway.
Almost as soon as we moved in we discovered a huge amount of problems which the landlord/family felt wasn’t VIP but they would occasionally do something outside that wasn’t needed (showing face of house as great looking…part of their ethnic culture, apparently)
when they decided to double their rental income and build another house on the front, problems increased and maintenance became zilch! the 1st tenant in the new house (in front) found 6mths later when she want to roast the turkey that the oven had never been plumbed in – the whole in-built kitchen had to be taken apart. the one who is in there now had problems with the kitchen as well…along with the shower ventilation upstairs
over here, I have at times got things repaired because of their poor remedies but the latest problem is way beyond my finances…
I have made a tentative plan to pack up and move after I finish Uni but right now I want to pack today and move yesterday…what keeps me here is convenience to shops/transport BUT in fact every room has a problem – some of it lack of maintenance, some of ‘just because’
rummuser,
The advantage of your approach is you don’t have to think. 😉
Cathy,
My heart goes out to you. Our apartment isn’t fancy, but the landlord does maintain it and it’s walking distance to downtown.
A lot of people don’t understand why we haven’t bought a house, they say living in an apartment for 36 years was just throwing money down the drain. In fact buying a house would have given us a fancier lifestyle but not been a good investment. And more importantly it would have been an infinite sink of time…precious time we’ve spent doing things we love.
Anyway, it looks as if you’ll have more choices when you’re done with the Uni. Thanks so much for keeping in touch.
You and your forward planning worry me at times, Jean: If you were a nurse, whilst neat and tidy, you’d have your pre-op patients discharged and out of the door before they have a chance to change into their gown and climb into bed.
U
Ursula,
Great description. 😀
I do love my autonomy, the ability to do things when I feel like it. That to me is the height of luxury.
Long ago I stopped distinguishing whether ToDo items originated with me or someone else. I guess when the kids were smaller it wasn’t a meaningful distinction. Then we have the guests who keep coming by.
Looney,
We don’t own a house, so our life is fairly simple. We have a lot of choice as to how we want to spend our time.
When I was writing this post I was thinking more of major life decisions, such as deciding to leave graduate school after one semester. The head of the department tried to talk me into staying, at least long enough to get a master’s degree, but I figured I would probably wind up at a university and would have a chance to do that later if I wanted. My immediate plans were to earn some money to go traveling. That was a good decision.
His worry was that if I didn’t get the graduate degree then I wouldn’t go back to that kind of life later. I told him that if I didn’t do it later it was probably the wrong way for me to go. He laughed and said in fact he had switched majors against other people’s advice and he never regretted it.
When we were at Cornell I was working for a physical chemist with a large group of post grads and graduate students. It would have been easy for me to get a degree in physical chemistry, but after auditing some very good courses I decided I was really more interested in other things. I too have never regretted it.
Jean, that brings back some related memories from long ago. I started the university a few years early on the strength of my math. My choice of a major was thus math. Then my father stepped in and told me he would permit me to major in anything as long as it wasn’t math! Forceably removing the one item from my ToDo list was painful, but in the end it opened up so many more possibilities that I couldn’t imagine at the time.
Looney,
That’s a great story. What did you end up majoring in, and what possibilities did it open up?
It reminds me of a Kathleen Norris quote:
I ended up in “Engineering Science”, which was sort of a create your own major. It allowed me to indulge in some more math so that I could recoil in horror at abstract math. Then there were the extra computer science classes and the solid and fluid mechanics along with the quantum physics.
My main project as a senior and grad student was for Los Alamos. It had to do with precision mirrors for lasers. When you make them on earth and then launch them into orbit, there are some microinch level distortions due to the removal of gravity loads. My job was to compute the difference and determine a tool path that would cut a contoured surface that would be flat in space! Fun stuff for which I was rewarded with a trip to Los Alamos.
My career was a lot to do with crash simulation. That eventually sent me to Japan for three years and almost another year distributed around Europe. It was good to see the world and work directly with groups inside of different companies.
Looney,
That does sound a lot more fun than being a math professor. The Los Alamos connection is neat.
Looney, ‘Come on Down’ –on TV program– to Los Alamos. If she comes from a town, your wife will love it. If she grew up in a city, maybe not. I’m worried. Your wife is Chinese? Mostly cities there?
Yes, she spent her high school years in Singapore, but I grew up as a Tennessee redneck. The Green Acres intro should give a sense of the complexities! I certainly do hope to get back for a visit, especially since my daughter lives not too far away.
Your Green Acres video is REALLY funny & describes your situation too. My parents built a house on top of a hill with land around, which my father cut with a tractor like that. haha
Oh, and you can visit here. I was born not far from Singapore when my father worked in Sumatra.
Looney,
How did you meet your wife?
Green Acres was our favorite program years ago. We still laugh about how Eddie Albert was the only sane one in the lot and he was always wrong.
Jean, I met my wife at the University of Tennessee back in the late 70’s. The more interesting story was how she got to Tennessee, but I will let that one wait. 🙂