Part 2: Why It Takes Me Four Hours or More to Leave for Work in the Morning

The iMac is lagging about a minute behind in showing my keyboard input as usual. Time to finally get around to buying that new iMac, since the one I spent thousands on in 2004 is now obsolete. Now that the Lion OS is finally released and the new iMac is available, no more excuses. I'm going to buy the new iMac loaded in hope that I won't run out of memory or disk space in my lifetime. Today In the meantime, performance is dismal, and that's only one of the things that slows me down as I try to work on my myriad of tiny projects before I leave for work. I woke up at a 6:30, but here I am still sitting at 8:40, well past my goal of 8 a.m. arrival at work, yet again. P.S. Arrived at work at 10:15.

What did I do before leaving the house? I ask myself. Prayed a lot for and about my children. I unpacked the 2nd suitcase, did dishes (mostly Liberty's) from last night, found clean sheets to leave out for the bi-weekly visit by my cleaning lady, met her at the door, exchanged a kiss of greeting, and shared photos from my trip with her. Asked about her upcoming trip to Peru and marked on the calendar the date for her next visit.

Took some cool-washed clothes out of the washer, hung underwear, and started a load of darks. Filled the watering can while warming up the water to wash my face (takes a long time for the hot water to make its way to the bathroom sink, and I hate to waste the water, so I fill up the watering can while running the water and waiting for the warm). Watered orchids. Glued the head back into Jadis's clay sculpture where it had come loose. Worked on glueing the veil of my mask of Our Lady, and sketched in more details on the nose and eyes. Took a photo of both and uploaded them to Facebook.

Read an Ignatius press article. Ate a chunk of leftover meatloaf and a peanut butter and honey sandwich with my coffee while reading today's prayers in Magnificat. Packed blueberries and a banana to bring to work. Washed the breakfast dishes.

On Facebook, read a note from niece Mary, then posted about the the annual Perseid Meteor Shower, nicknamed the Tears of St. Lawrence, and posted the famous quote from St. Lawrence whose feast is today in the new calendar (I think I'm done on this side, you can turn me over). Called EWTN to update my credit card for my monthly donation. Read the Northside Neighborhood group digest. Looked up the date for the St. Philomena Mass at Five Wounds and marked the calendar. Finally after Irma came, I got dressed and left for work.

And so the time goes.

Why It Takes Me Four or More Hours to Leave for Work in the Morning

Today I woke up at 5. Reasonable enough, since I'm still oriented towards East Coast time after my two-week vacation in Massachusetts ended on Saturday.

New resolution (old one actually, not actualized yet) is to get to work by 8.

I picked up a few things to put away from my suitcase (still unpacking). Then straightaway, I went to the computer, breaking another resolution.

Found a photo I took of a pastel painting I did at the Worcester Art Museum, brought it into Photoshop, couldn't make the clone tool work as usual, filled in an empty corner of the cropped photo with two colors lifted with the eye dropper and painted them in with the paintbrush tool. Posted the edited photo on Facebook.

Tried to make it my Profile picture but (probably because my MacOS version doesn't support the latest Flash), found that I couldn't.

Read the daily email digest from the Northside San Jose neighborhood group. Back to Facebook. Read some posts on my home page. Reassured those who had read my post about being stuck in the work parking lot last night with a dead battery that I got home safely. Tried to remove the tags identifying me on some unflattering photos is my niece Mary's photo album. :-) Couldn't do that either.

Remembered that Liberty attached the battery charger and I have to disconnect it and put back the battery cover before I leave for work.

Wrote a critique of Fr. Z's article about being persecuted by a NCR reporter [Ms. Z] and edited my text down trying to get it to stop being truncated at Facebook.

Wandered into the kitchen. Happy that my son, Liberty, did his dishes from yesterday. Mixed up makings for meatloaf tonight. Prepared a head of celery for snacking.

Back in my home office, I looked up recipes for fried polenta. Back in the kitchen, I cooked up some TJ's uncured beef bacon and slices of prepared polenta with onions and garlic, and olive oil.

Strained mold off TJ's maple syrup (never saw mold on maple syrup before).

Finally got a spiritual moment in by picking up a copy of Magnificat to read while eating. Read about St. Terese Benedicta of the Cross's feast day today in the new calendar,the readings for today's Mass, and two articles, one about the garish modernist cover painting of the Madonna in a garden and another about a painting about John the Baptist.

Back to my office, realized I should write the check for the parking ticket I got for using the cell phone while driving a few weeks ago. Remembered I have to call the man from the automatic gate company to schedule his repair, and to call the reupholsterer about the furniture wheels he ordered for me. The new floors are getting scratched by the Victorian furniture.

Wrote this. Oh, what time is it? 7:44. Looks like the dream of being at work at 8 is unreachable for yet another day.

Attention span, where art thou?

P.S. Now I've got to wash up from all that cooking and food prep, make the bed, get dressed and on my way. Note to self. Don't forget to call the gate guy. What happened to the gate opener? Write Liberty a note asking him. Give him the gate guy's phone numbers. Find the other note I wrote to Liberty about the glue that is missing that I was going to use to finish my Mary mask and glue Jadis's clay piece. Oh, and put a cool load in the wash, I'm running short on underwear. Do what I can to finish putting stuff away from the trip. Write and mail that check for the ticket. Call AT&T about the expiring credit card for autopay. ...