A Valuable Waste of Time

Day in, day out, I accomplish a lot of stuff.

Blog stuff (my stamping blog happily consumes a lot of my time).

Family financial stuff (you try finding out how much you paid for Horizon Health Corp stock back in 1997).

Housewife stuff (I do clean, you know...more than I like to admit given the general chaos of my house).

Pet owner stuff (two vet appointments in one week at two different vets).

Volunteer stuff (meal ministry, Stephen ministry).

Bible study stuff (class most Tuesdays, lots of reading).

Mommy stuff (oy vey!).  

Good and important stuff. There's so much stuff, in fact, that some stuff (like housekeeping) falls short of my best work. Isn't it funny how we often admire people who excel at things we only wish we excelled at. I have a friend (Karen, you know who you are) whose house has been immaculate every time I've set foot in it...even when I once dropped by without calling. I wish my house were immaculate every time someone stopped by.

But it isn't because, as much as I wish it were, I simply don't keep it that way. I'm the only neat freak in a house of rampant hoarders and decided years ago that I would go insane keeping my house clean enough for me. So it's just clean enough.

What do I do that keeps me sane (or at least functioning) when I could be striving for a really clean house or for perfection in all the other stuff I do?

I waste time doing things that make me happy.

Which brings me to the point of this post: the website Pinterest makes me very happy.

Pinterest acts like a virtual idea board. People pin (upload) gorgeous photos of all sorts of stuff: nature scenes, interior decor, architecture, fashion, baby pictures, wedding announcements, artwork, signs, urban chic scenes...you know, stuff. When users at Pinterest see photos they like, they can repin them to create their own unique idea boards.

It's all an enormous waste of time.

And I love it.

You have to love a place where you can find photos with quotations and sayings like these.

That last one is particularly true for me. So very true.

Anyway, it's easy to sink hours into scrolling through hundreds of pictures looking for quotations and sayings that make me happy. In fact, I'm happier wasting time on Pinterest looking for quotations than I am doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku, and reading murder mysteries combined.

I'm not sure what this says about me, exactly, but I have a pin that covers the situation:

I want this sign.

But I'm an English major at heart, and that means I can always invent an explanation when I need one. We English majors thrive on quotations that embody other people's cleverness. We mine for them like Snow White's seven dwarves mined for rubies and diamonds. We devour them like Grendel devoured King Hrothgar's men in Beowulf. We feel compelled to share them like Daisy feels compelled to share her glorious golden fur.

We're weird that way.

Of course, Pinterest isn't all quotations and sayings. It also contains visual beauty.

And humor. Lots of wonderful humor.

There are also lots of pictures of clever craft projects that I absolutely must make. Don't you think I need a Thankful Tree? Doesn't everyone need a Thankful Tree? I never would have thought up Thankful Trees on my own, but as soon as I saw this picture, I knew I needed to make one for myself. Because it's so me.

And these adorably simple gift bags...these, too, are so me. And I have that border punch. Oh yes I do!

And that, I think, is the appeal of Pinterest. You're bound to find stuff that is you: sayings that reflect your values and beliefs or tickle your funny bone, rooms that you want to live in, places you want to visit, projects you wish you'd thought of yourself, clothes you want to wear, food you want to eat, images that speak to your heart and soul and fill you with joy or peace or both.

And the fact that this stuff that is so you is presented in pretty pictures for your perusal in your pjs makes Pinterest just about perfect.

Whenever I think of Beowulf, I start getting all alliterative. Sorry.

You'll also find the occasional picture that helps you put your stuff--all the tedious, boring, important, interesting, daily stuff you have to do and want to do and dread doing--in perspective.

I can soooo live with that.

But I'd add the missing commas for clarity.

Note: Despite all appearances to the contrary, I have not been paid in any way to promote Pinterest. I'm just obsessed and hoping to infect others with my obsession so they, too, can waste time valuably.  

Piles

As I sit here at my computer, I am surrounded by piles. Piles of papers, piles of magazines, piles of books, piles of piles. Piles on my desk, the kitchen table, the floor, the kitchen island. There are even piles hanging on my cork board: piles of papers hanging vertically and precariously held that way by a single push-pin. These hanging piles occasionally flutter to the floor and cause a panic until we find the push-pin. We don’t want Daisy to eat the pin or for someone to step on it.

One day, they will find my cold, dead body under collapsed piles of paper products.

Piles are useful for sorting stuff, but it’s too easy for them to grow all by themselves, merge into each other, and take over a house. I have to make myself go through them periodically, but what I really need is a schedule. Go through this pile on Monday, this one Tuesday, and this one Wednesday…you get the picture. Or maybe it would work better to schedule it by room, since the piles are somewhat unpredictable in their nature and growth. Kitchen piles Monday, living room piles Tuesday, library piles Wednesday….

Such order and discipline won’t happen. It never does in my world. I just fantasize about it. It’s much easier to think about how to tackle the piles than to actually tackle them. Oh, I’ll get around to each one eventually, when the situation is urgent. For instance, as soon as I finish whining to you about piles, I’m going to clean the piles off my computer desk.

My poor computer is completely surrounded. I can barely use my mouse on the square inch of bare space left for it. I’m not exactly sure what is in all these piles, though I see George’s ear buds which I borrowed and haven’t returned, a box of tissues from when I had a cold last month, an art project Nick intended to give to his dad at Christmas but gave to him last night, a calendar my friend stamped for me, a stack of business cards I pulled out of an envelope on the cork board so I could find the number for the optometrist, a small olive-green moleskine notebook that I keep prayer requests in (along with five or so other notebooks used for various purposes), some sticks of never-dry modeling clay, the boys’ most recent report cards, a wad of receipts stuffed behind a basket overflowing with paperwork, and a lovely hand-thrown pottery vase that holds dull pencils and dried-out pens.

What a lot of stuff to sit precariously around a large laptop on a 39-inch by 22-inch desk.

I also just noticed the phone isn’t in its cradle. Funny how chaotic a house can get when people don’t put things back where they belong, eh?

As much as I would love to slide the whole mess into a trashcan and walk away, I think I better just get to work. At least I know I’ll be happy when this one messy corner of my life is tidy once again.

Because that’s all I get in this mess that is life: one tidy corner at a time.

Today, I am okay with that.