~ Cross It Off ~

I come from a long line of list makers.  We make lists of items we need to buy, things we need to accomplish, people we need to have rubbed out…that kind of thing.

My mom is one of the most impressive list makers I know.  She starts every list off with “ 1.) make a list.” so that after she finishes writing the list, she can already cross an item off.  It makes her feel a sense of accomplishment right out of the starting gate.  She’s a genius, my mom.

My lists tend to be a little more frustrating.  I’ve got daily to do lists, honey-do lists, and long-term goal lists.   It’s a little anal, and I try not to think about the time I waste actually drawing up the lists to begin with.

I’ve got a long-term goal list that has not changed much for the better part of a year.  One has to wonder why I bother making the list in the first place.  More than anything it serves as a reminder for how NON-productive I actually am, which is not something my fragile ego needs:

You’ll note that ‘Clean out car’ has not been crossed out….for the better part of a year.  And the filing, well, if large piles of papers scattered on and around the desk counts as filing, I could probably cross that one off.  The play area in the back yard technically doesn’t need cleaning anymore because there is a layer of autumn leaves covering the whole of it, kind of making it look all fresh and orderly.  And as for the photographs being put in frames and hung…I DID buy the frames like, six months ago.  I’ll probably get to hanging them within the next six.

Pathetic.

Why do I share this with you?  Is it to give you one more aspect of my deeply faceted personality, or is it a desperate reach to see if I’m the only one out there who is that backwards?  We’ll never know.

I suppose an optimist would see these lists as goals, and a pessimist would see them as lists of failed intentions.  Hmmm……I ought to take a moment to ponder that concept.

I’ll put that on my list.