Multitasking

The husband is due back from Hawaii today. He has been at a conference, and oh, dear, I've read enough David Lodge to know what kind of shenanigans go on at conferences. Despite the time difference, he has managed to catalogue to me every event he has attended and every contact made. I get it, he's feeling guilty.

As well he should. Since he's been gone, I've dealt with a gas leak, discovered the need and arranged for installation of a complete heating and cooling system, taken a child to the doctor, felt a bit under the weather for a day myself, listened to and smelled the aforementioned installation, which is yet unfinished. And my hair appointment got cancelled.

Meanwhile, I'm contemplating Success and Failure, my novel, and a new short story. It's a bit herky-jerky, this creative part of my life. Not just the creative part, all of life. For a writer, it's important to have a routine; but having a routine is really, really hard, especially when single parenting. The routine is like an old jalopy: hard to get going, such a relief when it's finally rumbling along; then, just when the engine starts to purr, a wheel falls off. Last night, for instance, when I remembered it was time to blog, the 7th grader was in tears over blow drying her hair, and the 3rd grader was bent over the sink, spraying saline up her nose and gagging. Hard to be contemplative under those conditions.

I took a minute and listed everything I'm trying to do in my life. I tried to make broad categories. Here's what I came up with, in the order they occurred to me:

• make friends/a community 
• mindfulness 
• find paying work
• finish novel 
• write interconnected short stories 
• parent
• spouse (as in "to spouse")
• make home Home
• stay fit 
• blog 
• therapy dog work 
• volunteer at school 
• take care of my mother;
• read and stay up-to-date on news 
• send stories out

Quite a list. I'm sure most everyone has a similarly long one. Each category breaks down into several sub-categories, too. On days when I make no progress in any one of them, I feel very frustrated. So it goes, I guess.

I blogged, today. So I can put a little tic next to that item.