Dearest Rachel –
Obviously, this title is a misnomer; there’s rarely such a thing as an unexpected deadline. It’s just that we go so long ignoring them, that once they finally loom in the near distance, we find ourselves agog, wondering “Wait… where did that come from?”
I know you understand where I’m coming from; you were well aware of your own tendencies to procrastinate. It was something of a running joke between us, in fact. And by “us,” I don’t just mean you and me; all of your circle of friends knew about this, in various forms as you would self-deprecatingly admit to this or that to them. But the thing is, since all of us were – are – guilty of the same flaw to one extent or another, it wasn’t as if your stories were that much more egregious than any of the rest of us. It’s just that, in the retelling, they seemed so much more so in the instant – especially when it meant pulling all-nighters to assemble a costume for a convention, or a school project for Daniel (and yes, he was infected by the procrastination bug, too, you’ll recall. I don’t know if this is a case of nature or nurture, but he either caught or learned it from us, depending on which perspective you want to believe).
These days, you might think that, with being retired and all, I wouldn’t have so many deadlines to deal with, so this is no longer a problem for me to cope with. If I want to get something done, that’s fine, but it’s not as if there’s any point where it has to get done, unless I impose one on myself, like my attempts to reach a certain milestone by the end of every month in my weight loss journey. That may be more true than not, but at the same time, there are events that go on around me that I have to be mindful of and prepare for, and I have to confess to being so preoccupied (I cannot in good faith say I’ve been “busy,” as such – I vaguely remember what it was like to be crazy busy, and I’m not even close to that now) with my own concerns and routines that I’ve neglected to deal with these external deadlines. And now they’re just about on top of me, and I have to do something about them… now!
Indeed, they’ve been so far off my radar that you likely might be wondering what I’m even talking about; that’s right, I haven’t told you about any of these things, and why I need to get cracking on them. To be fair, more of them are annual issues that might get a certain “oh, right!” reaction from you once I mention them, but there is one that’s… different.
So let me explain it first, and get it out of the way. In fairness, it’s the one that’s mostly complete at this point, anyway. The thing is, with the Sparks club nearly double in size from what it was when you had to go, some things haven’t been able to scale up quite as cleanly as others. One of these is keeping track of registrations and progress toward awards. For some kids, there have been duplication of effort, while others all but slip through the cracks. So, in order to try and get everyone’s records all in one place, I decided to assemble a database of everything and everyone. After all, I have the program as part of the whole Office suite; why not actually use it?
The thing is, databases aren’t something I deal with all that often. As in, ever. I had to learn how to build and use this thing from scratch. Yes, hurrah for YouTube, so I could handle even the smallest minutia when I got stuck (with the exception, thus far, of creating a telephone number format), so there is that. And while the formatting process was a bit tedious, once I got used to what I needed to do to get everything to look the way I wanted it to (which is to say, the way it has, up until now, always been recorded on paper), it all came together surprisingly quickly.
But that’s when I discovered the second drawback to working with a program that – in comparison to its suitemates assembling spreadsheets and documents – is rarely used. It may be stating the obvious, but most people don’t have a basic version of the program, in so that I can share the file with them so they can fill out the information they have in order to unify the data. I’m not really sure what I can do to remedy this, but at the moment, I’ve basically created something that only I have access (pun not intended) to, which is essentially the same bottleneck issue I was trying to solve. Oh, it looks good, and everything’s connected and cross-referenced, but it doesn’t address the situation it was meant to… yet. I’m hoping to get this dealt with, but I really only have until next Monday when I really have to go live with this, at least in a rudimentary fashion.
At least it’s kept me from goofing around too much at the ‘office’; I’ve actually been doing something useful and productive. And learning the ins and out of a new program is kind of cool, too.
On to the more regular stuff that I haven’t dealt with; birthdays and anniversaries. Jenn has the one just this next week (which we will be celebrating as a family, the way we used to do, this Sunday together after church), while the folks have the other coming up on Sunday (which, due to commemorating Jenn’s birthday, will be treated – at least from a family standpoint – a little more low-key). It’s not that I can’t get presents and cards together for them all between now and then, it’s just that I haven’t up until this point. And I really do need to get it all taken care of either today or tomorrow. I can’t just let it slide for another day.
That’s basically all there is to this one; just getting up, going where I need to, and picking up something that they’ll like. You’d think this would be easy: I carve out ninety minutes of every other day now to do something I basically hate; a half hour and a small drive that might otherwise be a little out of my way ought to be a simple thing. And yet, it hasn’t been done up to now. Theoretically, it shouldn’t take much effort to remedy, especially with a limited schedule for this weekend (at least, at this point – one never knows if something will come up), but as long as these are hanging over my head, I’m starting to get a little nervous about it.
And you might be wondering why, if Jenn’s birthday isn’t until the latter part of next week, why aren’t we celebrating the folks’ anniversary on Sunday, and Jenn’s birthday the following week? Well, about that… this one’s on me.
Well, not on me, exactly. More on the city of Chicago. And maybe Erin.
Yes, I’m going to got back down into the city to cheer her and the others on. Mostly her – why lie about it? And this brings up the final deadline I have to deal with (assuming I haven’t forgotten anything else, which is all too possible).
I’d like to put together another poster – maybe even two, in a double-sided sort of way (or not; I woke up this morning with a second slogan in mind, but it seems to have already slipped my memory. At least I have the one written down). Either way, I’d like it to look a little more professional than my homemade version – if for no other reason than that I don’t trust my layout skills (and the Bridge logo, with its deliberate brushstroke effect, is a beast to replicate). Can I find a place who can do this for me in a week’s time? I’ve asked Ellen if she knows anyone – she may be out of the business, but she might know someone. We shall see, I suppose…
But in any case, I’ve to get a move on.
So keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck; I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 