The thing about having a daily deadline to write is that I can only procrastinate for so long. Tonight, I pushed the limit to 9:37 pm, and with 30-45 minutes of writing time and 20 minutes of editing, that’ll put me right at 11 pm. Operating outside my comfort zone is how I prefer it, I guess.
If I hadn’t been so focused on leveling up my city on Total Battle to 2 million might, I’d be feeling less pressure right now. But this is far from the worst I’ve set myself up for a task. That came during graduate school when I succumbed to a cross-state romance. After a day spent in Portland at the zoo, and lingering at a park, the three-hour drive home to start the 10 or was it 20-page paper was the last thing I wanted to do. So even once on the road, I yolo’ed again and stopped at a lake, stripped down to just my skivvies, and had a solo swim just off the freeway.
I don’t think I slept that night. Finishing that crap paper at a time the sun and my roommates were getting up for work. I understand why I did it; I was a master procrastinator. But still, stepping back in that memory feels discombobulating, like did I have to take it that far? So like a dog just out of a dunk in a lake, I take the past and fling all the excess seaweed off of me.
When was the last time I stayed up all night? Thankfully I can’t recall, so likely more than 5-10 years ago. There was a 2 am night earlier this year while out in Georgia with a couple of family members. But other than that, midnight is my latest lately.
Due to hundreds of high schoolers doing school district lahar drills, I had to make a U-turn around fire truck-blocked intersections, which added frustration and extra minutes to a quick errand trip. If you don’t know about lahars, they’re the floods and debris that flow after a volcano blows. Being in Mount Rainier’s 14,411-foot elbow at 75 feet in Sumner means all that junk will gutter right at us.
I remember doing them in elementary. No school shooter drills, just getting under-the-desk precautions taken to escape Mother Nature’s wrath.
Good luck with that, ay?
Dang, I got distracted—scrolling Facebook, looking over Dave’s shoulder to see the reason for the Kraken hockey announcer’s excitement, and now I’m even more behind.
Or am I? If I end now I could be done ahead of time. 10:40pm it is.
I’ll see you here tomorrow and thanks for stopping by. Love, Jaclynn
Going On 40 