12.20 Lessons - Learn To Read A Calendar, Dumb Ass

Bestest Friend and I are in the middle of a blog project. Each day of the month we will post a picture on a pre-determined theme and write a little something about it. The theme for the twentieth day of each month is "Lessons."
****************************
I'm waiting for a student to come and when she is ten minutes late, I log on and check the confirmation email that I sent her about this appointment only to realize that I am, actually, an hour EARLY. I made myself crazy to get here for a 4:30 appointment, only to find I had an entire OTHER hour I could have been doing things to make my life easier for tomorrow (my husband's birthday - he doesn't want to make a big deal of it, so a big deal won't be made, but a DEAL will be made, at least a little one).

I have been working on being kinder - kinder to others and kinder to myself.  But I hate it when I do shit like this. I have never been good with details. So I have developed systems to help me with this shit. The reason air filters get changed regularly in our house is because we put in on the calendar. The reason the groceries get purchased is because I have a notecard with every recipe we make and we look at those notecards Every. Single. Time. we make a list to go to the store, even if we've made the recipe one hundred times.  The reasons the ceiling fans get changed from counter-clockwise to clockwise is because we do it on the days we reset clocks for daylight savings.  SYSTEMS.

So when I ignore the systems, I get very upset with myself.

Next semester, I'm teaching a "New Student Seminar" and on the day we tackle time management issues, I'm just going to print off this blog post and walk away.  Don't let me talk to you about time management, kids, I'm an idiot*.

*It's this self-deprecation that I'm trying to change. Getting upset at myself is counterproductive, of course. I've learned my lesson and will not do this again in the immediate future. But, fuck it, I'm so annoyed with myself right now.  (Deep breaths. Deep breaths.)
****************************
To see what Bestest Friend wrote about the theme of the day, check out her blog, Too Legit to Quit.