Monday, March 2, 2009

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I know you all can relate. We all have days when no matter how hard we try, we can't make any progress. My wheels are spinning and not only am I not moving forward, I think I may be going backwards.



Today is Monday. (No big surprise there.) Being the old (Old?! Who said, 'Old?!'), traditional kinda gal I am, I do laundry on Mondays. Being as how it's just the two of us, I figure I should be able to get the ironing done on Mondays also. Simple. Not a big deal. I have a washer and dryer. I have a sturdy ironing board and a good iron. (Well, the good iron may be debatable right now. It leaks. In a big way. Not all the time. Just some of the time.) I keep hoping to be organized enough so that come each Monday, the only thing I have to do is the laundry and ironing. The rest of the day I proclaim to be 'free' which means no other 'have-to-dos' get to infringe upon my time once the clothes are washed, dried, pressed and put away. Perfect. Sounds like an ideal Monday to me. Unfortunately, I just don't seem to be able to get there.





It's now getting nigh onto 3 p.m. and this is my counter next to the kitchen sink. Breakfast and lunch dishes stacked up. This is unusual for me. I dislike the task of doing dishes so much that I almost always do them immediately after a meal. What's gone wrong today? I dunno, but I sure better get at them soon or it will be time to add dinner's assortment to them. (No, we didn't each have a beer with breakfast. The bottles are leftover from the guys' attempt at thirst quenching when returning from their hike last night. The bottles are waiting to be washed since our daughter has asked us to save bottles for her because she's going to get into some serious root beer making soon.)





What was I planning on doing with all my 'free' time today? Sit on my rusty-duster and knit, knit, knit on the new winter hat my daughter put in a request for. Here it is in a heap on the end of the couch where I tossed it last night after finding I was too tired to accurately follow the pattern. ('Accurately' being the operative word here.) I'm pretty sure I have to tear out about half a round before getting back on track.



There is a bill on my desk top (somewhere) that I HAVE to pay today. Also an order that I should have sent off early LAST week. I keep coming back here to my desk thinking I'm going to get both items taken care of . . . and then something else calls for my attention and I go flitting off in another direction.



And if all the above weren't horrible, awful, bad enough, my craving for FOOD is driving me nuts today! I've been so good about cutting my portions and staying away from 'no-no-bad-things-to-put-in-my-mouth', but today I feel like I wanna eat anything that doesn't eat me first.



So what the heck am I doing sitting typing this blog entry if I have so much to do that's not getting done? Trying to catch my breath, center my scattered self, and find a sympathetic ear to tell my silly troubles to. (Yoohoo? Anybody out there?) No matter. Even if you're not listening, I'm better now. Watch out, you dirty dishes, here I come. (But maybe I should first add another beer bottle to the stack. As they say, it's got to be 5 o'clock somewhere.)



11 comments:

MaineCelt said...

Oh, my sympathies are with you! Perhaps it was a rogue electromagnetic wave, some new-moon lunar effect, hormonal vagaries, tiny aliens in your brain, whatever... but whatever it was, I think I had it too.
A family friend had a magnet on her fridge that says, "The hurrier I go,the behinder I get." There are many, many days when I feel that way: the harder I try, the less competent I become...heck, I'm not even sure if I've got the right spelling for "competent!"

It'll all be better tomorrow...

Mama Pea said...

I sincerely hope everyone knows that I don't have any REAL problems compared to all those that so many, many people are facing these trying days. But, Cowabunga, there really must have been something in the air yesterday . . . and it went all the way to Maine apparently! Roy had the same kind of day I did and the strange thing was it hung on right through the night last night. We both tossed and turned and woke and slept fitfully all night long. Weird. But this morning we're both bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to whip our weight in wildcats. (Ya, uh-huh, sure. Yaaaawn.)

I like your suggestion of tiny aliens in the brain. Can't fight that, now can you?

Annie said...

You actually iron? You must be very disciplined to actually iron before you put it away. I don't iron that much, but when I do, it is usually after I take it out of the closet to wear.

Mama Pea said...

Hey, Annie - Not only do I iron but I LIKE to iron! It gives me a sense of accomplishment . . . like I can SEE the results right there. 'Course, I suppose you could say the same about getting a batch of dishes done, and I ABHOR that task. Go figure! Strange ducks, aren't we?

Chicken Mama said...

Not picking on you, Annie, at ALL, but I just don't GET how people can get by in life WITHOUT ironing! I have two irons, and two ironing boards, but I have friends who don't OWN an iron! What's up with that?!

The only thing I can figure is that "the rest of you" must snatch the clothes the minute the dryer stops and fold them right then and there. Unless it was something really dressy, you could kinda get away with that.

But then, what about clothes hung on the line? They don't get NEARLY as wrinkle-free as dryer-tossed ones!

I guess it will forever remain a conundrum to me. ;)

Mama Pea said...

Annie - Proof positive that the 'ironing gene' gets passed on! ;o)

RuthieJ said...

Oh Mama Pea, I hope today went better for you!
I think we all have days like that--I know I do!

Mama Pea said...

Ruthie - That's the good thing about those frustrating days . . . the following day is always much better! For me, I know it helps to get my feelings out on paper (via my blog in this case). And if I whine too much, readers can choose not to put up with me! :o)

Annie said...

Huh! Do you guys only wear 100% linen clothes, or 100% cotton or something? No, your standards are just higher than mine. I just wear wrinkly clothes! Now that I'm working from home, I just don't care. Even when I was working in the office, if I knew I would be wearing a jacket over it all the time, sometimes I would only iron the collar and front part of the blouse that would show under the jacket.

I don't snatch things right from the dryer, and I don't iron stuff coming off the line in the summer either.

Chicken Mama said...

I'll admit to getting teased regularly by my modern-day girlfriends for ironing. Their favorite line is, "What - do you iron underwear, TOO?!"

But, I guess once the habit has been ironed in to you (har-dee-har-har), it's impossible to break!

Blame it on Mama Pea. (Who taught YOU to iron, Mama Pea?)

Mama Pea said...

Annie and Chicken Mama - Annie, you ironing only the parts of your blouse that showed reminds me of when we didn't have any form of electricity and Roy had to wear a dress shirt and tie to school every day. I had a Coleman iron (fueled with white gas) and it scared the bejeebers out of me. I would iron only his collars, cuffs, and placket halfway down the front and tell him to NEVER take off his sportcoat!

There obviously was something wrong with me from an early age, Chicken Mama, as I can remember BEGGING my mother to let me iron. First she would only let me do hankerchiefs and I must have been pretty small 'cause I remember burning my fingers a lot!