For some reason, since the start of the semester, I've been unable to remember to do anything that isn't written on my left hand. Every day, then, I've got something new written there. Some days the nearest pen to hand has impressive staying power, and the next morning I find myself trying to scrub off yesterday's to-do list so I can start on today's. On bad days, I have to re-write yesterday's list and add today's after it.
Sometimes the lists are calm and reasonable:
"Nut. CD."
"Read."
"Anth library, pots, laundry"
Other times a keen observer will notice some panic showing through along with yesterday's ink:
"read read fucking read"
"5:00 bookstore 5:30 library 5:45 dinner 6:00 class."
Today's list:
"work 1-2 print Nut food pots dishes read ow."
That's because I need to print out a lot of articles from e-reserves because I can never get them read if they're on my computer, I need to go after work to Pet Food Express to get food and litter and a carrier for Peanut, then I need to come back and do both a dishwashing shift and a pots & pans washing shift for my house (after a dinner for which I won't be around because I'll be buying cat food), then I need to catch up on a hell of a lot of reading because there's a huge hullabaloo of some mysterious nature going on in my house this weekend (more on that later) and it's taking up my entire Saturday so I need to read now if I'm not going to get more behind, and I sprained my foot this week but foolishly went to tae kwon do yesterday anyway and now it really kind of hurts. And I need to remember that I can't do any of this stuff during lunch because my co-worker doesn't come in on Fridays and I have class during the one hour that one of us needs to be here for a time-dependent task, so I need to come in the hour before and try to bend time to get it done.
That sucks.
On the other hand, this morning someone in my house got up early to put on weird, horrible, sappy hippie music which I think has something to do with the higher-consciousness-education center which used to own our building... and to put a bike lock over the cabinet holding the stereo and volume control, with cheery notes reminding us that Living Love Is Coming! It's so horrible that I'm actually strangely delighted by it.
I am, however, sorry that this year the house president will not be hiding in the fridge to hand out invitations to Saturday's event. Apparently this has in fact happened in the past. And now, really, more on that later.
Posted by dianna at September 15, 2006 11:54 AMOr, since we'll be getting a car to drop Nut off, we can pick up food/liter/etc. on the way to Ken's this Sunday. That will save both time and tired arms. Speaking of which, give me a call about timing for Sunday.
Posted by: Jacob at September 15, 2006 11:55 AMI suppose we could pick up a liter of food. But it might be for the best if we instead purchased food and litter instead.
Posted by: Jacob at September 15, 2006 11:58 AMThat is an excellent idea. Not the liter; I feel that cat food is usually sold in volumes of slightly more than one liter. But the car, yes. Thank you for bringing it up.
I will call you. But as far as I know any time on Sunday will be the same to me.
Posted by: Dianna at September 15, 2006 12:59 PMAh, the NRLF truck. Can't you get one of the Sups to handle that? I mean, I fully understand not wanting to dump the job on them, and the sups, by dint of not understanding the details of Clerkliness, tend to make a lot of mistakes, but it is an option.
Hand-wise, I've discovered that if you set up a Google homepage they've got a really handy to-do list widget. It lets you easily add and remove items and set the priority for them.
On the other hand, my affection for Nature's Palm Pilot are well known, so I can't really criticize.
Posted by: Zach S. at September 15, 2006 01:27 PMOkay, but you're ignoring the essential disadvantage of a computer-based memory assister: you don't see it constantly and you don't carry it around with you. On both counts a pocket notebook and pencil score higher than any web-based solution that Google can create, and in turn, the back of my left hand scores higher than the pocket notebook and pencil.
What's happening here is that I'm writing things in a notebook that I have with me in my backpack at all times, but I'm forgetting to look at the notebook to see what I've written. I'll write down an essential task to be done at 12:30 and then stop to check my notebook for essential tasks at 2:00. Setting my 12:30 task as a top priority doesn't help me actually prioritize it if I don't remember that I have a list of priorities to look at.
Thus, the hand.
Posted by: Dianna at September 15, 2006 01:52 PMThe new afternoon list:
"nut print pots dishes read laundry."
What it doesn't say, but should:
"don't use an ink eraser to erase the old to-do list on your hand."
Yeah, but what happens if you lose your left hand in a freak clerking accident (perhaps while rushing to finish the NRLF truck before 2 o'clock)? Then how will you remember to pick up a liter of food for Peanut?
Posted by: Zach S. at September 16, 2006 01:56 PM