Stop and smell the roses...or at least look at them!

I have a really bad habit. (Well, several, but that is a blog for a different day!) I let things pile up and do them under pressure. Anything and everything, really. I always wrote the most amazing papers for school...the night before, sometimes the hour before, they were due. I get down to my last pair of undies, and throw in a load of wash. (Or ten.) I fill my gas tank when it is running on gas sweat. You know, the stuff that drips off of the real gas. Gas sweat. Or perspiration if that offends you. :) (Seriously people...I ran out of gas this past week, while idling next to the pump! I was so grateful...the butler would have been ticked to come and rescue me when it was simply stupidity!) I prefer to think of it as economizing...using every last drop of gas. And for my Christian friends...we call it good stewardship.

So, knowing this about myself, I try to map out my list of things to do and write down what I should do on which day. It is a great thought. A GREAT thought. And that is where it ends. Because when I should be crossing off the completed items on say Wednesday night, I am crossing off the unfinished items and transferring them to Thursday. Then Thursday, I cross them off and put them on Friday. Yep...a list maker and a procrastinator. So what happens when I am trying to do Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday's stuff the night before the Friday event? I don't sleep. At all. I stay up all night and try to accomplish it all. Wonderwoman I am not. In fact, I think I am more like Blunderwoman. Ultimately, the list gets finished. And if it doesn't, it gets altered. Hey, I am so not above lowering my standards.

So what is my point? Oh shut up, I was getting to that.

I had a light bulb moment tonight. When I was wandering through Wal-Mart...at 2:00 in the morning. (I ran out of baby wipes...and that is one thing that will send me to the store in the middle of the night. Why did I run out? Because, silly, my kids poop. A lot. Oh, and I was supposed to go to Costco for wipees last Tuesday, then Wednesday, then...do you see the problem?)

Sorry, back to the light bulb moment. I have decided that our nation's retailers are doing this to me. They are taking away the roses. There is absolutely not a moment to stop and smell the roses and maybe not even an opportunity to look at them with the way that our stores are breezing through holiday's these days. This chaos that I used to thrive on, that used to help me get things done...is doing the opposite to me in my old(er) age. I am almost rebelling.

You see, tonight I wandered down the Valentine aisle, looking for clearance treasures (don't worry, didn't find any)...and there she was...that tramp...EASTER, staring me right in the face. What the heck did she do with the short, green, beer drinking guy...you know, the Irish one? Did the midget get ousted by the bunny and the cheesey plastic grass? (Oh, sorry...the PC term is Little People, geesh, I should know that. The Roloff's are one of my favorites!)

And guess what? It gets worse. After I had spent 20 minutes in line, (apparently 15 other people couldn't sleep either) I walked past a brand new display of **get this** Back to school stuff! Hello? We haven't even finished this school year yet? A fresh supply of white board markers, pens, pencils, folders, paper, pencil boxes and more...ready to be "stocked up" on. People...I still have heartburn from the red and white Peanut M&M's from that naked dude in a diaper.

So that is my pet peeve of late. No more enjoying the holiday, having down time between them, and enjoying the prep time before the next holiday...nope...they are just squeezing them all into a holiday blob. Pretty soon, it will simply be "MerryChrisPatricktinesweensgiving." Seriously. They don't want to miss a merchandising moment...so much so, that they have just started moving all of the holidays closer together. Completely squishing out St. Patty's day to bulk up on Easter sales. Same thing after back to school sales end...bust out the Halloween merchandise and gloss over Thanksgiving for Christmas.

This is the world that doesn't let us slow down. The world that wants us to always be thinking ahead to the next big thing we have to plan and do and shop for. Not even one moments time to enjoy our summer with a sense of accomplishment...nope...put away the swim diapers and foam noodles (if you didn't get them right after New Year's...you may have missed your window of shoppertunity) so that the people don't forget that back to friggin' school is only 4 months away!!!!!

I'd better go...St. Patty's day is a month away, and I haven't even purchased my fourth of July stuff yet!

Sigh.

The Maid