Thoughts flow in and out,
Coursing loudly over days.
Eroding silence.
Maybe it’s the coffee speaking, but I can really be an impatient person.
I’m not content with waiting around doing nothing in between two tasks that I have set out to do. In general, this isn’t a problem. I can fill the lag time with useful short doings like checking my email, making mental lists of things I need to do, or even writing a blog post. Call this multitasking (I don’t), call this task switching (great NPR article about that here), call it being spazzy, I don’t care. I do it a lot, and you probably do as well. I’m just not content with being patient and waiting for one thing to finish before I start the next.
A large portion of our now fast-paced and digital-driven lives are spent in this perpetual push forward. We watch TV (or YouTube, Netflix, or Hulu) while we cook (if we cook), while we eat (because generally we eat alone), and while we do menial tasks for work in front of a computer (or else we’d either go nuts or fall asleep). The simple chore of sitting and waiting has turned into a game to see with what we can occupy our mind in the interlude between activities.
I’m at a point in the evening right now where I’m done with work, finished supper, have played with the dog, and now can’t figure out what to do. I won’t say I’m bored (which is good because I’d hate to have Mom take a toy away from me as was the rule when we re little), just indecisive. Since nothing has started yet, there is a huge number of possibilities, and its hard to wait while I choose ones over the others. Unfortunately, this sometimes drags out long enough that I do indeed get bored and just go to bed instead. It’s as if I’m assuming that i wouldn’t have gotten anything meaningful done on whatever the chosen task was, so there was no use starting it that night.
Task jumping is sometimes a great thing, and other times is debilitating. When it does pay off, however, patience can be the most beautiful thing in the world.
First off, it’s Spring Break (woooo). The only difference that makes for me is that the campus, which I have not left, is now fantastically empty, and that all my roommates are gone but their pets aren’t. Meaning, I am taking care of said pets. Said pets being a dog (beagle, Stella), a guinea pig (crazy haired, Jurassic), and a fish (beta, who the hell knows its name).
Two of the three little beasties are pretty darn labor free, just make sure they’re fed and that one of them gets scratched on the nose enough and the other has its light on (you can figure out which is which). One, however, is more work. That’d be the 9 year old little pup.
Stella’s a great dog. Doesn’t bark at anything besides squirrels and other dogs when on walks, only gets hyper when its walk time, only occasionally does things on the carpets that needs to be cleaned up, and never chews on shoes or cell phones. She does, however, insist on sleeping on your feet and snoring the entire night long. Which does not work when your bed is tiny, and you have slight insomnia in the first place. And by you, I mean me. I tried to sleep on the couch last night so she could be in the same room as me but not on top of my feet. Do we think that worked? Not as such. Giant couch length wise, but she insisted on using my ankles as a pillow. I would just kick her out of my room at night, but that would lead to scratching of the door, an angry roommate later on (as it’s her parents house Stella would be destroying), and no sleep for me anyway.
So. If I ever get a dog, I’ll need a bigger bed. Or, and here’s a new one, a bed for the dog. Or a dog that sleeps at the foot of the bed, and not on the feet of me.
what Was, what Is, and what Will Be 