T'is the season... to freak out

Do you ever have those mornings where it feels like your life is just in shambles? Well, that’s a really dramatic way to put it, but lately I just feel like I can’t get my act together and get out the door in a reasonable amount of time. And I know it’s because I am so unorganized at home, I work long hours, get home, make dinner, and just poop out on the couch. It doesn’t help that my house is sooooo cold, that the minute I get home I feel like I need to either get under a blanket or change into long underwear. Anyway, the point is, I am so lazy on weeknights and end up wasting them away, even when there is SO MUCH TO DO! Like right now. Right smack in the middle of the holiday season… there is so much that I just keep putting off, and it really is having a terrible affect on the rest of my life. This morning, a direct result of my laziness with laundry and inability to get out of bed at a reasonable time (and I suppose my unwillingness to forgo my morning run), I missed the first half of a really important meeting. With really important people. People who can make or break my career advancement at this company. I am stupid.

The list of things I have been forgoing each night for a glass of wine and my DVR is a mile long, and I’m going to publish it here in hopes that my acknowledgement of the list will encourage me to tackle it.

1. Christmas cards. I FINALLY ordered photo cards from Costco yesterday. After a month of looking online at cute designs and going back and forth as to which picture of Dan and me over the year to use, I finally just had to go with cheap and fast. They should be ready for pickup today at 4:00. Obviously, step two is to get them in the freaking mail. This will also involve going to the post office for stamps. Damn, I totally forgot about that stupid little errand. I hate the post office and usually prefer to order my stamps online, but of course… procrastination rears its ugly head and we do not have time for that.

2. Finish Christmas shopping. We’re doing ok here, only a few people left. Of course I have a WHOLE separate list for Christmas gifts, but this definitely needs to be included here. Now I’ve sort of got a nice matrix-list thing going on. See List 2 appendix i, column G.

3. Make cookies! I know this could totally be dropped from the list, but the holiday season just is not complete without a few baking-induced arguments in our messy little kitchen. You see, Dan and I are not always the best team when it comes to cooking. I like to boss and obviously my way is always the right way, and he does not like being told what to do. Trust me. We both become horrible versions of ourselves when we try to accomplish anything together in the kitchen. Snide comments, check. Silent treatment, check. Taking it out on our dog who is constantly under-foot causing us to trip all over ourselves, check. And what better way to honor Jesus’s birthday? (Also, I am craving like you wouldn’t believe those candy oatmeal cookies that we made last year, sooo… yea.)

4. Finish gift-wrapping. See List 2 appendix ix, column B.

5. Put away the laundry/shoes that are all over the guest bedroom, our living room, our laundry room, etc. Oh, and the clothes that are just spewed all over the two bedrooms upstairs as a result of multiple outfit crisises (crisi?). Also, organize the thousand pairs of tights I have accumulated that are hanging out of their overstuffed and disheveled dresser drawer.

6. Wash all those clothes that need “special care” that have been hanging in our laundry room for possibly two decades. I have so much cute stuff down there that I haven’t worn in ages because I avoid the laundry room like the plague. That’s Dan’s room, he handles the laundry. However rightfully so, he refuses to deal with any of my clothes that have special instructions.

7. Clean the bathroom, vacuum the first floor, scrub the kitchen, remove dog hair from furniture, make our house look less hobo.

8. Bring grandma’s gifts (for us, which we bought for ourselves) to her house, so she can wrap them. Seems wrong, yes, but I am getting an adorable kelly green peacoat with big black buttons and a round collar that makes me look skinny instead of puffy. And if it saves her a few holiday shopping freak-outs, than everyone is happy I say.

9. Do the grocery shopping for my friend Holly’s holiday party on Sunday. We’re supposed to bring a dish to share, and I’m making this dip. Holy yum. Also, we need to find and wrap two crappy things we have lying around in our house for the white elephant gift exchange they’re doing.

10. My OCD side wants this list to be an even 10 but I can’t think of an actual substantial final item to add to this list. There are thousands of little things that I’m not going to bore the internet with (hasn’t this list already bored (boreded, bore, boren?) you enough?), but those are all going on List 3 of my List Matrix, which I still need to compile from the dozens of post-its littering my office. Got it! The tenth item on this list will be to compile List 3. Genius!

So there you have it. Operation get my life on track has commenced!