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Wedding pictures: Better late than never
Everyone who is a die-hard, life-long procrastinator, raise your hands.
Never mind. You can do that later if you would like. But I know I'm not alone in putting things off until the last moment.
Some people thrive on the urgency of doing things with the pressure of a deadline over their heads. Some people just put off the things they don't like to do until they have nothing left to do except those chores. And some people like myself cannot complete a project -- from writing to cleaning -- unless there in an end-date in sight.
That is how, nearly 10 years after my wedding, I finally ordered my wedding pictures.
The birth of five children was not enough motivation to order my wedding pictures. The attendance at countless other weddings was not enough motivation. Badgering by family members was not enough motivation.
Only the approach of the double-digit anniversary prompted me to take the three minutes to order pictures from my wedding. I spent more time agonizing over the ordering process during the past 10 years than I spent actually ordering them.
What took so long? Things came up such as changing diapers, ferrying kids to soccer games, giving the dog his yearly bath. I'm also indecisive so I had problems choosing between the picture of my husband and I with or without the dog. I went with the picture sans dog since he has died -- at a record old age -- since the wedding took place.
How do I feel since I received my wedding pictures? Despite putting it off for 10 years, I feel a sense of accomplishment at finally sitting down and deciding what I want. Despite the arrival of five children, I feel that my wedding is finally official now. Despite that it took me a decade to get organized, I feel superior to my sister-in-law who was married the year before me and my husband -- and still hasn't ordered her wedding pictures.
The fact that it took a decade to order my wedding pictures should not come as a big shock to any of my fellow procrastinators because procrastination slips into every aspect of life.
For example, most writers compose on a deadline. After time, they cannot write without a deadline, whether it's the printing date for a newsletter, the due date for a college paper or in my case, the deadline for this column.
After nearly a decade of writing this column, I never get it done ahead of time and that procrastination has caught up with me several times including just last week.
Knowing that my editor was waiting for the column to appear on his computer, I was literally reaching for my computer's mouse to hit save when the power went out at my house and I lost everything on my screen.
I was mad at myself for not having saved my work before that point. I was mad at myself for not realizing the power might go out since I had stopped mid-writing to let some people work on electrical units outside my house.
But I was most upset because I should have been done writing long before that point, more specifically days before that point.
After letting go of my frustration through a variety of creative, destructive ways, I sat back down at my computer and retyped the column -- in half the time.
Even if you never write, procrastination can take over other areas of your life. Who hasn't woke up in the morning only to remember that you are scheduled to bring snacks for your son?
Never mind that you have had the snack calendar posted on the front of the refrigerator for the past month.
Your idea of a cute, home-made snack is quickly thrown out the window in favor of ready-made cupcakes from the store.
I regularly encounter moms and dads who were frantically looking for an appropriate snack to take to school for their daughter's birthday at the last minute. I don't know why we're not prepared because it's not like your child's birthday changes from year to year. At least I have an excuse ... I was busy ordering wedding pictures.