Time Management

Punctuality is honoring someone else's time.

I saw this comment several years ago and took it to heart.   I too use to be one of those people who couldn't seem to get myself together and out the door on time.  (well to be honest, sometimes I still am.)   I wasn't terribly late, usually 5 - 10 minutes.   And I always told myself it was because I was a busy mom of three, worked full time, traffic is horrible, blah, blah, blah.    And  I arrived just a tad discombublated and frazzeled.   Not the professional image I wanted to give.    Then I read that people who are perpetually late not only have organization issues, which we all know has been my challenge over the years, but they are also arrogent and have no regard for other people's time.    The question was, if you are meeting three other people for dinner and they are on time, what makes you  think you are so important that you can't be on time too? 

Hmmm, that was a bit of a slap.   I never considered myself so important that it was my right to make other people wait for me, I was just always behind.  My friends knew it but never said anything (to my face).   So that was my new goal to work on.  Be on time.   Not only on time but be the first one there.  Boy that was hard at first.   I tried to trick myself into leaving early, that didn't work well.   Finally, I just got it together.  I figured out how to get things done the night before which allowed me to have less morning stress and thus be able to walk out the door on time.   I didn't have to check my bag three times from the front door to the car to be sure I had everything.   Then run back to the house.

Once I learned to trust myself that I got everything together the night before I just grabbed my bag and left.   I keep knitting in the truck so if I'm way early, I have something to occupy my time while I wait.   That makes me less crazy and resentful when I'm waiting for the others, be it friends or the doctor appointment I was early for.  

Funny thing was once I changed my mindset, the relaxed happier me started poking her head out.    

My New Mantra

Ten on Tuesday - Pumpkin

Ah Carole, I don't eat a lot of pumpkin, but your list is encouraging.

1. with cake mix, as cupcakes, no frosting needed just a spice cake mix and a can of pumpkin makes very dense cakes, if you want it a little fluffy, add an egg.
2. Pumpkin pie not my favorite but with enough whip cream I'll eat it (I'd rather have pecan pie).
3. Bread.   Haven't tried pumpkin bread but maybe this is the year.
4. Soup.   Umm, no.
5. Cheesecake. There are tons of recipes for pumpkin cheesecake, from fancy ones to no bake ones to swirl ones and they all make me swoon.   I like cheesecake
6. Pumpkin Latte. Pumpkin, spices and caffeine make an excellent combination.   Except I'm not a flavor coffee kind of girl.  
7. Roasted pumpkin seeds.
8. Pancakes. Or waffles. The addition of pumpkin makes them super moist and the perfect autumn breakfast.
9. Pumpkin cookies.

Okay, I can't come up with 10 things, although I'm sure I could if  I googled.   Is that cheating?  How do you take your pumpkin?

On a Facebook page today

Recovery

Well, maybe the wrong title, but I am recovering from my weekend at SOAR. Wow what a few days it was. Of course, as per my normal state of affairs, there are no pictures. Don't know why I bother to take the camera if I'm not going to remember to use it.

I had only signed up for the two day retreat. Then early in the summer thought a Thursday class would be fun, but alas, was still on the waiting list yesterday. That's okay though, I made flight plans for Thursday, and being my optomistic self (and always trying to think economically) I flew out of BWI at 7:20 a.m. Which meant I was up and out the door at 4:45 since it is a good hour drive. My thought was that at the last minute, the class would have space open. My contingency plan was that of course my room would be ready in the morning, never mind the fact that the hotel states on their website that check in is 3:00 p.m. So as a second contengency plan, I signed up with the Suri Newtwork to do some demo spininng in their booth. What could be more fun and relaxing than spinning suri alpaca, for free?

So, flight was good, it was a little chilly in New Hampshire, but not bad and of course, my room wasn't ready. So I dumped my bags with the front desk and took a walk into town. Manchester is a small town, but full of life and easy to nativate - not that I went too far. There was a nice park right across the street from the hotel and the weekend before had a chili cookoff, sorry I missed that. I found a coffee shop, bought a huge scone and a coffee and headed back to hotel for a comfy morning of knitting in the lobby. Coffee was pretty good, scone was about the worse I've ever had and only ate it because I didn't know when I'd get lunch or if at all and knew not eating till dinner was a bad idea.

I met Lynn at the appointed time and sat down to spin with her wheel. Alpaca, pure alpaca. I stayed in the zone for well more than my two hour time, and shockingly, she said that only one other person had signed up to spin the entire weekend. I know that many people were busy with classes, but really, a lot of people didn't have class on Thursday, and you didn't have to do it the entire two hours. But it worked in my favor, because try as I might no room at the inn for me until 3:00.

I stepped out of my comfort zone a lot this weekend. I'm not a crowds and strangers kind of person. I don't mind crowds if I'm prepared for them (and I was) and I know my limits, so didn't look for a roommate and sucked up the expensive ass hotel fee. And I don't mind strangers, but not usually volunteering to spend an entire weekend with them where I know no one. So, I sat in the lobby before dinner and knitted. A woman sat with me and we started chatting. I was so fortunate to find one of the complainers of the weekend. Ugh. She started in on the food, the continued on how it was horrible, she hadn't eaten and was sick and nauseous. Her husband called while we were chatting, she complained to him, and said if the dinner looked bad she was going out for pizza. After she hung up, she started in again, and then her friend sat down and she complained to her. The friend, on the other hand said she thought the food was pretty good.

We all know that feeding over 300 people at one time is a challenge. I know that, and buffet isn't my favorite way to eat, but I've had some pretty bad retreat foods, so was hopeful. And glad with Ms. Complainer, got up and left. Dinner wasn't too bad actually, there was salad, not a lot of toppings for it, but a few, and red onions, I love those. No croutons which was too bad because the rolls served at each meal were dry and stale, so no bread for me, which was actually okay, and chicken, not too dried out, or tough. Dessert was okay too. There wasn't a lot of options, and I was actually surprised that I wasn't hungry later.

Off to bed at 8:30, because I know my limitations and didn't want to be too tired for my Friday classes. And I had a comfy room. Huge, huge bed all to myself, big bathroom comfy chair with a footstool, lots of space to stretch out, get my stuff ready for the next day, and off to slumber land. By 9:30. Late night party girl I'm not.

One More Sleep

In less than 24 hours I will be off to my first SOAR retreat. Can. Not. Wait. Because I have school tonight and won't be home until 10ish, and because I must leave the house at 4:45 a.m. Thursday, I have packed everything I will need.

I wonder how many women at the airport tomorrow will be able to say their carry on has all the clothes they will need?

Flying Southwest I know that I can check the suitcase for free, but I'm wondering if they will charge for weight. Hope not, but I figure it won't be near as much as if I tried shipping the wheel and all the "extras".

Coffee

Coffee is the beginning of my morning. It has consistently been the start of my morning for oh so many years. Except when I was pregnant, or really really really really sick, I have coffee every morning. The coffeemaker is ready to go before I go to bed, all I have to do is hit start in the morning.

There is a routine every morning, Jack stands on my chest if he thinks I'm oversleeping, thus starving his fat belly. I walk down the hall to the kitchen, push the on button on said coffee maker, feed the cats and empty the dishwasher. All this is accomplished while I hear the bubble bubble bubble of my coffee maker happing greeting me.

This morning was no different, exept it is Sunday, so Jack deemed it a day that I could sleep as long as I wanted (as long as it wasn't past 5:45). So I did my thing, like always. Except darkness was coming from the coffee maker. And it wasn't the darkness of a full clear pot of coffee. So I did what any normal person would do, I looked at it again, pulled the refrigerator away from the wall (the coffee maker is plugged into the same outlet as the refrigerator) all the while telling myself that the fridge was working quite happily, and really if it wasn't wouldn't you be more pissed about the possibility of having to buy a new fridge today instead of a coffee maker? But no, I was focused on no coffee. Naturally I plugged the maker into another outlet, because obviously the fridge faries are keeping power on to my refrigerator.

Nope. Nada. Dead in the water (hahaha)

Ponder. push buttons more, then wait, what? The hot water maker side works? WTF????? Ponder some more. Okay, you use to have a melita maker, so why not use the same process? I heated the water in the hot water heater, then poured the water into the coffee grounds on the other side, and . . . coffee.

Ponder ponder ponder. I'd really rather not have to spend money on a coffee mater today. No, they aren't that much in the big scheme of things, but I really like this one. I liked that I could make hot water on one side for tea or other hot drink. I liked the timer feature and clock, except oh yeah, now that I think about it, the clock broke about 4 months ago and I couldn't set it anymore. But it is my coffee maker. I like coffee. I don't think they make the melika system anymore, and I don't own a tea kettle. And this one was on sale for about 100 bucks 18 months ago, and I kinda thought that a Cuisinart would last for years and years. I expect a $18 special sale coffee maker to last me a year. I'm okay with that. I REALLY expected this one to last forever.

But WAIT! For some reason I never got rid of this.

I know that it was because every time I saw it in the back of the cabinet, where you have to squat and bend over to see, and the two times a year I actually did that, I said to myself, nope, it doesn't take up much room, and you never know . . .

I'll be cleaning it up this morning and checking it out, because if, while it has been in storage for the past 15 years or so, it has decided that it doesn't want to work anymore, that it likes retirement, I'll have to replace it too.

Here's the counter space I have now gained where the coffee maker USE to be.