My Answer is Procrastination

So how does a perfectionist deal with not enough hours in the day? Procrastination, of course.

Recently, I’ve found myself with a much longer to-do list than hours in the day. Ideally, I would be able to just add more hours to the day, but I’ve been told that’s not a realistic option. I tried cutting back on the wasted hours I spend sleeping, but crankiness is the side effect. I don’t even want to deal with my own self cranky very less inflict it on others.

I’ve read quite a bit about time management (as I was procrastinating, of course), but I’ve yet to find a solution to my problem. One of the number one words of advice given on the matter is to prioritize by making a list. I make lists daily. I have sticky notes with things to do stuck to my podium and my desk at work, lists on my refrigerator, lists on my island of the daily tasks, and lists on the calendar I keep in my purse. The problem is that when you combine all my lists, I’m right back to the initial problem of not having enough hours in the day.

Which leads to the second most given piece of advice and that is to learn to say no and to eliminate items from the to-do list. Hmm… who do I eliminate or tell no? My kids? My students? My friends? My online instructor who is expecting me to be working on my final exam at this moment?

Not likely. Everyone and everything in my life has a purpose right now, even if it feels like some days I will drown in the responsibility of it all. You know, on those days it feels as if I’ve failed at it all, and that I haven’t accomplished what I should have; I haven’t been there for every single person who’s needed me that day or remembered all the things that I’m expected to say to someone depending on me for advice or support. But at the end of the day, I have done what can be accomplished in one day by one person (I’ve been told superpowers are out of the question, too.).

Basically, I’ve learned to let it go. Perfectionism that is. Procrastination has become a workable strategy, not because I leave things to the last minute, but because there are so many tasks to complete that last minute is all I have left. Everything will work out at the end of the day, and if it doesn’t, there is always tomorrow. And sometimes, things don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be done.

Of course, that doesn’t work with my instructor who is waiting for my final. I probably need to get back to it and stop procrastinating. Probably too late for that.

With a Little Bit of Luck

Have you ever gone through a period of time where it felt as if your luck has run out? That’s where I’ve been recently. Not that I was winning the lottery before or winning anything really. But you can’t help but feel that you have a little luck until everything begins to go wrong. So on St. Patrick’s Day I decided to go find some luck. Not with the luck of the Irish however. I went in search of a JuJu doll instead.

This adventure comes with a bit of back story. In Vicksburg a few weeks ago a friend had purchased a JuJu doll in an art job. The doll is supposed to be the positive version of a Voodoo doll. It looked interesting, so it came home. Fast forward a month and I mention how I’m having a streak of bad luck. He responds by saying that he’s been having good luck and he must owe it to the JuJu doll.

Where can I get one of those now?

So my quest began to find my own JuJu doll without having to return to Vicksburg to claim a bit of good luck. What better place to find a good luck Voodoo doll than in New Orleans?

Apparently, Voodoo dolls have become a tourist commodity in New Orleans. Every gift shop appears to have a collection of dolls. These dolls apparently have the ability to bring success, attract a lover, and a whole host of things that would cause me to blush if I wrote them down. The lucky rabbit’s foot has nothing on these dolls.

JuJu, the good luck charm, must be popular for it was the most difficult to find (Of course it was. My luck hasn’t changed yet.) In the end, we found one at a New Orleans themed store in the Riverwalk. It is not as attractive as the one found in Vicksburg, but it is supposed to bring good luck.

I carried my own JuJu doll home and placed it in my room. I didn’t want to scare visitors away. And I’m not talking about having a Voodoo doll in my house either.  This doll will not be winning any beauty contests. It’s a good thing it’s supposed to be lucky.

It was an interesting adventure whether it changes my luck or not. I still lean in the direction that we make our own luck, but if the JuJu doll helps out, I won’t be complaining.

Star-Crossed Lovers

Even after four hundred years, Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet can still be found on stage. This weekend I attended Nicholls State University’s production of Romeo and Juliet by the Nicholls Player’s Club.

Though the dialogue in the play was original to Shakespeare’s original lines (though shortened and adjusted to the two hour time frame), the play had a modern backdrop of a political campaign. The play begins with Montague and Capulet campaigning against each other in a campaign complete with a video camera carrying press. How relevant in this campaign year? The music soundtrack was also current music reminiscent of teenage television shows, and at times it felt like High School Musical meets Shakespeare.

Somewhere in the middle of the play, I realized why students love Romeo and Juliet much more than the Julius Caesar play I’m forced to teach as a tenth grade English teacher. It’s like the four hundred year old version of Twilight but in a language you can’t understand anymore. (I don’t understand teenage slang either. So that’s just one of the many similarities to begin the list.) Romeo and Juliet has the instant love at first sight storyline, the love triangle with Romeo-Juliet-Paris, teenagers getting married, and the violence similar to vampires trying to kill each other. Romeo and Juliet is not so different from the unrealistic love stories found in today’s teen books. After four hundred years, we’re still reading stories that give us the same storyline. Our tastes haven’t changed though the language has.

The NSU players delivered a great performance though. I can remember back in college when my college professor became enraged when the Leonardo Dicaprio movie came out because of its modern adaption and its use of guns. This version used campaign poster sticks as weapons and even had sword fights with hammers. Not to mention Juliet’s recording of a misbehaving, female Mercutio scene with her cellphone and no doubt posting it to Youtube. There was only one scene where a gun was used, and though it did feel out of place for me, it wasn’t done with the same intent as Dicaprio’s movie version.

In the end Romeo and Juliet died. This certainly requires no spoiler alert. The fate of those star-crossed lovers never changes even after four hundred years.  Though all those modern-day story adaptions appear to forget that when they describe the storyline as Romeo and Juliet like.

Future Meets the Past

What happens when your past and future collide? In the past few days I caught a glimpse into both my past and my future with interesting results.

Once again, for the second year, I visited the psychic. I know, I know. It’s beginning to sound like an obsession. This time was different though. Whereas last time I only experienced excitement at the thought of someone telling me what lay in store for me, I must admit to a large dose of anxiety mixed in with a tad bit of excitement this time around.

Last time I visited her with my life as an open canvas. I was unclear on what I wanted from life and willing to have someone paint the picture over the blankness. This time around, the picture on the canvas has been outlined and mostly filled in, but it isn’t quite complete. Anxiety surfaced at the thought that the psychic would tell me that I’d gone in the completely wrong direction.

Though I have changed much in the last year since I visited her last (name, hair color, etc.), she recognized me. Strangely, I’d hoped she wouldn’t. Part of me wanted to see if she’d remember what she’d told me last year. Would the new predictions be the same or completely different? If they were different, could I dismiss it all as fiction?

I’ll keep the details to myself, but she did not tell me I was going in the wrong direction. Again, she amazed me at how accurately she could describe people and things in my life without being prompted. But most importantly, I don’t feel the need to rush out and immediately make her predictions come true this time around. I’m much more willing to wait. Maybe I’ve also learned patience in the last year.

To put my obsession with the future in perspective, I’ve had surprise visits in the past week from two friends I haven’t seen or spoken to much in the last decade or so. It’s interesting that while catching up all the time you’ve missed from each other’s lives, you realize how far you’ve come from the past and how much further you would like to go.

It hasn’t been a bad journey, for I’ve experienced much on the way to my present point. Ten years ago I couldn’t have foreseen my current place in life, so whether the psychic’s predictions happen or not, I can only live and see.

So between the past and the future, I think I’ll continue to live in the present and allow the future to unravel as it slowly becomes my present. (Though I will also probably not resist going to a psychic again in the future just to see. It doesn’t hurt, and it certainly is interesting.)