technicalities
I don’t want to be here late again, but I have this Burch Fellowship commemorative booklet hanging over me, and it’s due next Friday. They only told me they needed it a week or so ago, so the expediency the job requires, given its complexity, it a bit unreasonable. But I’ll get it done for them, one way or another. I always do. It’s just uncomfortable under the pressure of the moment (stress?).
Our apartment sprung a leak last night. More precisely, the ceiling started dripping (flowing?) water at a prodigious rate in the washer/dryer closet, which is (fortunately) washer/dryer-less. It was coming down in John’s closet as well, to the point where it completely filled up the plastic covering for the overhead light. The carpet was sopping wet, completely saturating any paper towel placed on it. John moved all his stuff out into the living area at 1 or so in the morning and I called the main office and left a message. I think the residents above us must have busted a water line to the washing machine or something. I’ll find out when I return home, in any case.
Do you ever remember what it felt like to have absolutely nothing to do? I used to know… Some summers during high school I had completed everything required of me during the day, I had no school, work was through, and there was nothing I could have been initiating or getting ahead with. The feeling was altogether unfamiliar, and if by some miracle the same convergence of circumstances occurred today, I probably wouldn’t even recognize it, since my mind would subconsciously respond to the vacuum of responsibility and quickly seize onto some new thing. Somehow I feel like that isn’t the way it should be, though–not that I should never have nothing to do, but my mind feels overburdened and overwhelmed not because of the mental weight of my responsibilities, most of which are mundane things, but because of the double task of prioritizing and maintaining everything. It’s a strong argument for implementation of some organization in my life. It would shore up a lot of issues. I want to quell the neverending assault of “should-be-doings” in my mind. Sometimes I think about my habits at work and my way of dealing with clients, and I can stand outside myself and imagine what I would be like to work with from their perspective–a good designer, but scheduling is always unsure. So the missing element is reliability in matters of time. I know what I need, but it’s helpful to solidify things in writing–if nothing else it’s one less thing running around upstairs.
Leaking ceilings are never a good thing! I hope you all are able to get that sorted out quickly.
I don’t know if I even remember what it felt like to have nothing to do. It has been so long since I have had that feeling… I don’t know that it was even as close as high school. But it has definitely gotten worse; instead of having a few things on my to-do list during down time, now there are always at least dozens of things bouncing around in my brain. I guess that’s what written lists are for… but I lack the organization to keep all of those things straight as well. I am always somewhat envious of those people (like my mom!) who are able to keep everything perfectly organized. But my consolation is that when one is not always thinking in boxes and lines it allows for great creativity. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it! (There has to be some benefit to being inherently disorganized!)
had a leak like that last fall… the toilet upstairs was flushed and didn’t stop running and no one noticed because we were asleep. fortunately 2 roomies can home an hour later and we had a huge freak-out, mop up, shut off the electricity, take down the light fixtures and watch the downstairs ceiling bubble moment. it was fun. i obviously don’t have enough to do that is urgent or i wouldn’t have posted so much today.
We got it sorted out. Or, more accurately, it was sorted out–Maintenance came over around 9 a.m. and cleaned everything up, or so John told me. They even shampooed the carpet; quite decent of them, I thought.
I can understand the argument for greater creativity and flexibility that not being as organized favors, and I’m inclined to adopt it myself, being as disorganized as I am. The inevitable response to that, though, would be that if I could just incorporate a measure of organization to certain areas of my life, wouldn’t it free up more of my thinking toward even greater creativity? I would think so… Just as long as the organization doesn’t become compulsive and overly constraining. It’s a fine line, but I think now is the time I want to set these things in motion for the years ahead.
Hope you’re having a good morning :o)
Well as long as it was fun :o) A couple of nights ago it certainly wasn’t–I just wanted to go to sleep and felt bad for leaving John in the middle of it all, but it was affecting his area of the apartment to the exclusion of everything else. And it got cleared up the next morning anyhow, though the apartment still does smell kinda funky.
I’m glad you liked Carl Sandburg. He has a great way of seizing individual moments with very powerful and concise metaphors, much like Hemingway did in prose. Sorry if my endorsement of your poem sounded kind of clinical and academic, too–I really liked it, just to like it :o)