So I'm a little late getting today's post... um... posted. I've been trying to work on my taxes pretty much since I got home from work. It seems like they get more difficult to do every year. I think it probably goes without saying that I hate them. Even on the rare occasion in which I receive a refund, I still hate doing them. There is no joy in the quest for a yearly check from the federal government. It is time consuming, boring, and way too tedious. Plus, it's time that could be much better wasted elsewhere.
I've been wasting a lot of time over the last two weeks. I went to a professional development conference for five days in New Orleans last week, and the week before that I took off of work for a little old fashioned Spring Break. This gave me a plethora of free time. And how did I use that wonderful, wonderful time? Well, my wife and have reached the 90% completion mark in LEGO: Harry Potter for Wii. That's something, right? Pokemon Black and White came out a few weeks ago, so that's devoured an hour here and there each day. Plus there was all that spring cleaning. Sure, it needed to be done, but it made it that much easier to convince myself I needed time to "relax" and let my mind slide into a gentle torpor watching Lego bricks swirl in a purple haze while I filled my pie-hole with salty snacks. I did do quite a bit of reading, and I won't denigrate any amount of time spent doing so. I read three books while I was in New Orleans alone. What else was I gonna do?
Well... write for one thing. But I didn't even take my laptop with me. Here I am pretending to be a writer, and I'm not even writing! Not with any regularity at least. I'm finding it way too easy to become distracted by "important" things like chores (yes, my wife gives me chores... otherwise I would never do anything around the house), getting my taxes done on time, catching Kyurem (no small feat at level 75), working on work stuff, spending time with my family, bathing a couple of times a week, planning minor remodeling jobs for around the house, getting the oil and filter changed on my car, spending entirely too much time "on the pot" (hey, when you're comfortable and playing Angry Birds, there's not much reason to get up), designing business cards, and picking my toenails.
Sure, some of those things just need doin'. For me, though, it's way too easy to let them all take shotgun while writing sits in the back window seat of the mini-van right behind the captain's seat opposite the door... no one wants that seat (unless you're spry enough to crawl over the seat and out the trunk door... that's always fun). My wife has been re-writing about two chapters a day for a week now and I secretly hate her for it. Because here I am writing a blog and thinking about how cool it would be to ride a dinosaur, while she's actually getting it done. I finished editing my second draft two weeks ago, but have I started on following re-write? Nope. It's sitting there waiting for me, and every once and a while I hear it mumble on about me being a "liar" and a "failure" and that I have "bad breath."
The point is: it's way too easy to get distracted, and if I'm not writing then I'm not a writer. Simple as that.
Now excuse me while I go eat some Hamburger Helper and re-write Chapter 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment