Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The subtle art of avoiding avoidance

Here is the thing, I am trying to get some work done.  Not piffly, "that would be nice but whatever" work like the gardening.  But real, "if I get my splintered mind together someone may actually pay me" work.

Arrrrggggg.  Avoidance.  What a blot.  My life conspires to distract me and I am aiding and abetting it.

When I was young I used to do the usual amateur night things - drinking too much coffee, creating weirdo hairstyles and cleaning out the sock drawer when I was supposed to be studying for exams.

curly-cake
This is not me playing with hairstyles - it is how my hair looks if I ignore it.  Just joshing. Not me at all.


Aside from my ongoing caffeine addiction, the vanity of the long-haired monsters and the proliferation of sock drawers within my realm of responsibilities, I have 10,000 new ways to distract myself, things that need doing and have a reasonable claim upon my time.  Things like:
  • ensuring the fire hose of fresh food flows through the house
  • doing reading with children and otherwise supervising homework (do you know how many animals begin with X - several in fact, but only if you look them up on the internet because there are none in the 3 dictionaries I checked - I know, I know, what was I doing with a printed reference source - sooo pre-wikipedia)
  • caring whether the 453 brown marks on the girls legs are bruises or smears of dirt from falling off the monkey bars (I am looking at you, spaghetti-arms)
  • occasionally removing the 424 specimens that turn out to be dirt
  • getting exercise, because that may actually contribute to the work
  • getting the children to clean their rooms - surely one of the most pointlessly difficult tasks among the pantheon of human endeavor
  • picking long and convoluted recipes that are a pain to shop for and more pain to cook, especially later in the week when even takeaway is looking pretty good because you never did buy that rocket and if you never open the pan drawer again it will be a relief, especially as one of the sloth girls jammed the frying pan in so badly that getting the drawer open is going to be a considerable topological puzzle
  • starting new novels at 9.45 at night and then finishing them (oops - not sure I can put that one in this list - note to self - start a new list of avoidance activities that are unsaleable as needing doing - call list "Things I like to do if only I could relax and spend my life playing about like a monkey in a fruiting tree")
  • reading notices from the school, because tomorrow is cross country running day and if I had ordered the special morning tea from the canteen before the cutoff two days ago, my children would be joining the 5 million others lining up for their biscuit and milk instead of gazing at the bruised fruit and bottle of warm water sludging around their lunchboxes.  Meh.  Let them eat fruit.  They will probably get dragged off with asthma attacks half way around the course so morning tea will be a moot point.
Anyway, before I get too crabby, there are lots of avoidance options available.  Which to choose?

I know, I will write a blog.  That is sure to help.

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