Plays Well With Others But Does Not Follow Directions

Here's a question: Do people not read directions or do they read them and then choose just to do whatever they want anyway? I suspect the later...

I'm putting together a tri-board that requires 5x7 photos of members. Instead of having people send me potentially huge image files, I set up a gallery on www.kodakgallery.com and asked them to post their pictures there. I provided step-by-step instructions on how to do this, including giving them the login and password to access the album. The final line of my e-mail asked that they please not send photos to  me as my computer doesn't do well with image files.

How many people do you think e-mailed me their photos directly?

Let's put it this way: more than one. It makes me nuts. In order for them to know I need a photo, they have to have read my e-mail. So WHY are they sending  me photos directly? If they're confused about how to work the gallery, why not e-mail me and say they're confused, versus potentially locking my system with the photo they're sending when I specifically instructed them NOT to send it to me?  I just want to beat my head against a wall and then turn, grab them, and beat theirs. Is it really that difficult?

That's all. Just blowing off a little early morning steam...

TV Banishment

I have gotten really off target with my New Year's goal of only one hour of TV/day. One hour has been sliding into 75 minutes, then into an hour and a half. The odd part is, I'm not enjoying my time in front of the TV, even when I cheat to get it. Blair and I watched a movie on Saturday and by the time it was over at 10:30, my head hurt and I was too wired to sleep.

So today I begin anew. One hour of TV/day, max. I do NOT need to watch an episode of Friends for a break at 5:30. I have plenty to keep me busy. In fact, I've pulled together a list of short tasks that need to be done around the house. And there are bonuses to be had. Yesterday I was doing one of these small tasks, the one which involved emptying out and wiping down the silverware drawers, and discovered that this is where Blair has been hiding the dark chocolate from me. (We buy a box of dark chocolate and he doles out a piece a day to me. I can't be trusted to have the box available to me as I'll eat it all in one day. I've been looking for his secret hiding place for months, so yesterday was a big score for me.)

I also need to get my butt out the door and running more often. The Massacre Marathon Relay is on Sunday. I ran the course on Saturday with two of my teammates and it is a hilly 1.6 mile loop. Not huge hills, but enough to put me out of breath if I'm trying to run them fast. I'm aiming for an 8:30 or better pace for my laps.  Go Supergeezer Team, Go!

Ignoring My Last Post

In Friday's post I wrote about making writing a priority and saying no to others. However, if I had followed that advice I would not have attended the outstanding Foster Friends writing workshop yesterday. And that would have been a severe loss, indeed.

The Foster Friends network of NC is sponsoring an art and essay contest for children in the Foster Care system in our area. First prize is a $500 savings bond. I was asked by a friend in the program if I would facilitate the 2-hour writing workshop held yesterday. I said yes, and a friend from my writer's group, Daniel, who used to teach Jr. High English, went with me. Thank God. Daniel is a teaching whiz and quickly connected with the kids. For example, to demonstrate the importance of using specific language, he did this marvelous peanut butter and jelly exercise where he had one student instruct him how to make a PB&J sandwich. When told to take the bread out of the ziplock bag, he ripped at the opposite end of the bag that had the zipper. When told to put the peanut butter on the bread, he stacked the jar on top of the bread. And, when told to "squish together" the pieces of bread that had the peanut butter on one and jelly on the other, he left the jelly side up and squished his hand into it--to the great delight of the kids.

The kids were... brilliant. Open and communicative and serious about writing. Ages ranged from 8 to 16, yet the room jelled. I came home and told Blair only half-kiddingly that there is now an 8-year-old boy out there I want to adopt.  The 8 year old boy came with 2 paragraphs already written for the contest which Daniel read over and helped him with. A 10 or 11 year old girl asked me to read the 2 and 1/2 pages she'd written. The essay is private so I won't share the contents here but... oh my God. Simply but beautifully written, heartbreaking, honest. It was an honor to spend time with these kids. I never would have wanted to miss the chance to work with them.

So I guess the lesson is... be careful what you consider saying no to or you might miss out on some really special opportunities in life.

Pulling the Pieces Together

For long time blog readers, you might recall that waaaay back in September of '07, I mentioned there would be some career changes in the air for '08. The biggest change is that I have drastically, as in almost completely, cut back on my project (read: paid) writing and am instead spending the first half of this year focusing on creative writing.

Or rather, I'm trying to. I'm amazed how quickly each day flies by and how little work it seems I've accomplished. My struggle is making life fit around my writing versus the other way around. This week, I am losing the battle.

Instead of sitting down to write, my mind is buzzing with a list of chores. These include: preparing material for a workshop this Saturday, writing and practicing a Toastmasters speech, following up with our dental insurance to see where the heck our claim money is, calling our auto insurance carrier to see if they'll match the better rate we were were quoted by a competitor, clean the house, buy stamps, pull together a tri-board display I said I'd do (stupid, stupid, stupid) for my Toastmasters group, write a brief proposal to someone who wants me co-author a book, research details for said proposal, exercise, yoga, volunteer at the animal shelter, wash my car, etc., etc.

Certainly nothing mind boggling or outside the ordinary there. But I'm finding that I'm focusing on getting all of the above done FIRST and then I'll write.  Only I'm not feeling the least bit creative or inspired after being on hold with dental claims for 30 minutes, or after spending 4 hours with caged animals in a shelter.

So my priority is to fit the rest of life around my writing time. Which probably means I need to start saying "no" more often then not. No, I can't give a speech that week, no, I will not teach a workshop, no, I can't meet for lunch or coffee. Writing time first, in the morning and early afternoon hours when I'm at my best. All the rest can wait to be dealt with in the late afternoon. I need to get back to my "no checking e-mail and no taking phone calls" before noon stance, as well.

So I'm going to ignore the list I just typed here, pour myself a cup of coffee (decaf) and go sit in my messy downstairs bedroom writing space and spend the morning writing. The rest of the world will just have to wait to be dealt with until later today. I'm sure it will still be there when I emerge.