Moving Right Along

And today, a third job app opp drops in my lap. (Hey, that's a lot of aps and ops.) Must be something about January, a lot of places get their new budgets sorted out, and can finally advertise positions that might have lain fallow for the last months of 2006. Good-o for me, the more the merrier. I'm still printing out my portfolio--and trying to decide what to leave out. I want 8 projects in there, and I have 7 good ones, and 3 of questionable value but more visually exciting. (Basically, we're talking research papers vs. projects with pretty pictures. Both are useful, but I wish some of my group projects hadn't actually been done by a group, if you get my drift...) And then I need to type up a summary sheet. And then I am actually prepared to respond when people say, "Sure, I'd love to see your portfolio!"

The question arose as to why my Current Life plan isn't making a list and crossing stuff off it; that's what most people do, after all, and it gives them a sense of satisfaction and completion, while allowing them to organize their thoughts. But for me, a list is all about the things on it you DIDN'T get done..... and there are things that I've needed to do for months--like, say, take the pets to the vet. That is going to have to happen when schedule permits, but I've been putting it off for various reasons (time, money being the two big ones. Three cats at a vet isn't a cheap visit.) If I made a list, and that was on it, I'd feel more and more inadequate each time I looked at the list and couldn't cross that off, even if I'd done a bunch of other minor things that also needed doing but hadn't made the list. I mean, how often can you write "laundry," and then cross it off, then write it again, then cross it off..... Now, I can sit at the end of the day and say, "really now--what did you get done?" and I can say, well, I swept the dining room (even though I didn't recycle all the newspapers on the table) and put oil in the car (though I didn't take it in for a tuneup, that'll hold it til I can get over there) and paid some bills, and hey--if I spend 15 minutes before bed tidying up the bathroom, I can write that down too! Look how much I did!

To each their own mind games. If it gets the bathroom clean, I'll take it.