One of my most annoying habits is packing too many items for trips and never using them. This habit may have started in my gigging days. I used to bring copies of reports and emails to read if I had a few moments to divert my attention from the conductor. Patiently waiting for the strings to pull a difficult passage together was never my strong suit. I knew that I could and should be listening to their work because I would be hearing something that would bring me better understanding of the score in its entirety. I'm not always a "good" musician.
Cripes, I play the bassoon! All of the difficult passages are in our excerpt book. The rest of the bassoon parts are usually oom-chucks underneath all the groovy melodies carried in the upper parts (like, all the other winds, trumpets and violins). If I haven't yet figured out how to oom-chuck the accompaniment after 12 years of intense study and practice, I was an idiot and shouldn't be paid to make these silly sounds.
Inevitably, I'd be absorbed in a paragraph when I realized I missed an entrance. I'd tuck the document away and out of reach before I got caught by someone else (like the old school conductor who would have stabbed me in the eye with his baton if our union would allow). Now that I have two mobile devices that allow me quick access to all sorts of distractions, it's even harder not to check in just for a quick second. But the students are watching me - I should set a good example.
Bad professor.
But I digress. This post is about all the stuff I carry with me and never get to. Mind, I don't just do this on vacations, I do this every time I pack up to go home. My reasoning is that if one of the kids gets sick, I want my work with me. Jimminy - I'm totally hooked up at home. I have a computer and a few gazillion books I could be reading there as well. What on earth compels me to continue to lug home tote bags full of papers?
Guilt.
I simply must learn how to reasonably plan for what I will accomplish at home, and at work. Stick to that plan, or let it go.
Like this grapefruit.
I bought it at the grocery store about three weeks ago thinking it would make a fine breakfast on my new diet tracking system. I brought it back and forth to work for an entire week. Since it was still intact when I started packing for my road trip (sturdy little fellow), I put it in my lunch bag for a snack on the road.
I'm really going to be able to peel the sucker, including the thick pith for consumption? That's what I do when I'm the co-pilot. I never said I was particularly brilliant. Bright maybe, but brilliant? Nope.
This grapefruit traveled from Bethlehem, PA to Kenosha, WI to Appleton, WI to New Berlin, WI to Ann Arbor, MI to Bowling Green, OH to Toledo, OH and all the way back to Bethlehem and found itself back in my refrigerator.
This morning, I woke up early for a 6am webinar. By the time I got dressed and the kids ready for their summer program, I had not eaten my own breakfast, I grabbed the same grapefruit and tucked it in my ONE tote bag (I'm betting better at this, too) for grazing at the beginning of my work day.
I had that sucker peeled and in a bowl before I turned this computer on. Already ate three pieces and dripped grapefruit juice on my keyboard.
Good girl.
19/90
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