Wednesday, May 8, 2013

No rest...

My last final for the spring semester was on Monday night.   That evening I went home and made a batch of cupcakes (yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles), watched a movie on Netflix ("The Awakened") and went to bed.  I expected that I would fall happily into a deep slumber now that the prospect of paper deadlines and exams was no longer hanging over my head.

I snuggled under the covers and closed my eyes but instead of the expected peace of sleep a voice popped int my head and it said:

"Hey...so how about that To Do list?"

I sometimes imagine that I have this busy body assistant who dwells in my mind.  She has dark hair pulled into a tight bun, wears oversize dark rimmed glasses and bright red lipstick painted on a mouth that never smiles but is fixed in permanent pinched "shouldn't you be doing something" pout of disapproval.  She sits behind a desk in the front office of my brain filing her nails and reminding me that  life has a very limited number of hours between birth and death; she REALLY likes to remind me of the death part.

As I lay down in bed Monday night it there she was, seated in her swivel chair, legs crossed, looking over the rim of her glasses at me.  I noticed she had painted her toenails red - she doesn't wear shoes, she likes to be comfortable - and I thought how nice it would be to actually have the time to give myself a pedicure.

The list began to tumble through my head, emails to respond to, rehearsals to schedule...

"Just think, now that you have all this extra time we can get so much done!"

...budgets to write, blog posts to draft, costumes to sew, projects for work, laundry to wash...

"Your hair...don't forget you need to do something about those roots."

Oh right...hair to color, venues to call, press releases to write, that pile of books I said I'd read when the semester was finished...

...set up the Etsy site, revise my workout to take my knee injury into account, actually do said revised workout...

"Meditate.  Set a side five minutes just to breathe dear...you stress out too much."

...sure, meditate.  Let's add that to the list too...create some new hat patterns...plan a weekend movement retreat...

"Okay, really, now you are stressing me out.  Why don't you just go to sleep and trust that I'll be right here in the morning to remind you of all you have to do."

Right.  Okay.  Sleep.  Isn't that what I wanted to do in the first place?

"Yes dear, it was.  You really should take our own advice more often."

Yeah...yeah...ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

"Good night dear.  Sweet dreams.  Busy day tomorrow.  Death comes sooner than you think."






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