To Do: My Life, in Lists

I haven't been around much lately.

Maybe you've noticed.

Or, then again, maybe you haven't since...really, let's be honest...there just isn't much to see around here these days.

It's just that I have all these lists jumbling around in my head lately...all To-Do Lists of some sort: things I have To Do for work, things I have To Do at home, things I have To Do for the kids...and mixed somewhere in there, dizzy amongst all the other demands, is my list of things I want To Do.

Despite how manic I can be, I'm usually pretty good about putting that list at the top. Take right now, for instance: I'm sitting in a kitchen strewn with week-old mail (we get a lot of catalogs...trust me, it's A LOT), the Disney hotel key cards from last week's trip, a month's worth of kindergarten and preschool projects, letters, worksheets, drawings, and notices (which we have surely ignored for way longer than is proper), and countertops crusted with week-old bits and pieces (last night I scraped some honey drops off with my nail...who knew honey got that hard?). But here I am: blogging instead of doing what I "should" be doing. I could rationalize it by saying that every once in a while, you gotta throw out the to-do's and just say "Fuck it" and have a night to yourself, but if I'm gonna be really honest, then I have to admit that I've done that pretty much every night for a week. Monday, it was "Fuck it, I have a fever, I don't care if the kitchen is a mess." Tuesday it was "Fuck it, I feel like shit but at least I don't have a fever anymore, so I don't care if the kitchen is still a mess." Wednesday it was "Fuck it, I finally feel like myself, so I am going to spend time with the kids, and I don't care if the kitchen is a mess." Thursday it was "Fuck it, I meant to get to it today, but I'll deal with the kitchen tomorrow." And today, well, today it's "Fuck it, I'm drinking wine and it's Friday, so just fuck it in general."

But in spite of the fact that I usually do carve time out of life's chaos To Do the stuff I really want to, sometimes blogging falls by the wayside. And I find that, for some reason, lately I have been thinking in "list-form" a lot. So after toying with the idea for a couple of months, I've decided that every once in a while (or whenever I damn well please), I will have a List Post. 'Cause truth be told, my brain never shuts down and I very often have something I want to say, but usually I just don't have the time (or energy, mainly) to sit down and put together a cohesive, poignant, perhaps funny, usually sarcastic post on the matter. So, I present you with the first of my new series: "My Life, in Lists."

List of things I can never say NO to:

1. A rockin' stiletto on sale (even though I have more than my social life will really ever require)
2. My kids asking for "one more chapter" or "one more book" or anything reading-related
3. An offer from my mother to watch the kids overnight
4. A gorgeous day at the beach
5. A night out with The Girls (or day out, or lunch, or any gathering, really, in which I may feel like I will miss out)
6. The snooze button
7. Red velvet anything
8. A foot rub
9. Good salsa
10. A really good book
11. Date night (even if it's just at home after the kids are asleep) with Hubby
12. Trashy celebrity magazines
13. Cadbury Mini Eggs (unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on the current number on the scale, they only sell them at Easter time)
14. Watching anything with Drew Barrymore or Sarah Jessica Parker in it
15. Another glass of wine

Cheers!