Time

I have an on again off again relationship with time.  I think it's a combination of my ADD mixed together with my upbringing all stirred together in a complicated time soup.

I know for some people with ADD/ADHD they cannot get to a place on time ever.  My oldest daughter for example really struggles with time.  If you say we need to leave at 4:00, she interprets that as maybe she should start getting ready at 4:00ish.  She doesn't do it to be rude...it's just how her mind works.


For me it's more complicated than that.  I learned early on in my childhood that being on time was life threateningly vital...if I was late to something, humanity as we know it would be lost forever. 

So, as you can imagine, my family was very early to a lot of things.  I have lots of memories of helping to set up events.


Fast forward 30+ years and you can imagine the struggles of a mom who had an animal like instinct to being early and a daughter whose idea of early was not missing the entire event.

Then add a couple more kids to the mix and my general dislike of setting up and the idea of time gets more complicated.  I'm always trying to figure out things like:  What time to I need to leave in order to get there after several other people have arrived so I don't have to set up.  How long will it really take me to drive there (for some reason I always forget I don't have a flying car and traffic could be an issue)?  If I say I want to leave at 4:00 what is the likelihood of everyone coming with me being ready at 4:00 and did I take into account the time I would need to go back in the house several times for items I forgot.

You put this all together and I started being late to events which triggered anxiety deep within me.  All the way to the event I would stress and yell at traffic and generally not be very much fun to be around.  I'd arrive all stressed out and be mad at myself for being late.

So I have learned to adapt over the years.  But one thing I still do is manage to pack my schedule too tight on some days.  I'll have an appointments throughout the day and someone will ask me to do something and I'll say, yes, I have 35.6 minutes free, sure I can do that.  And then it will take 41.2 minutes to accomplish and I'll be a ball of stress because the rest of my day is thrown off.  A perfect example of that would be my wedding day which I will put into it's own post...simply because I think it deserves it :-)

The last ingredient that goes into my time soup is distraction.  I will have a schedule, I'll have planned out the time I need to leave the house, I'll plan out the time that I need to start getting ready in order to leave the house, I'll see I have a few minutes to kill until that time and I'll sit down to the computer.  Next thing I know it's 5 minutes after I was supposed to be leaving and the stress begins.

This happened a lot when I was having to pick up kids from school every day.  Thank goodness for the bus...I no longer have to be that late mom.

Bowling Mom

So I gave myself a new title this weekend...I am now an official bowling mom.  What is that you ask?  Hmmmm....I'm quickly figuring out it means I drive a lot and sit in bowling alleys 100% more than I used to.  (And why is it mandated that bowling alleys must be cheesy?  And is it bowling allies or alleys....Googled it...it's alleys.)

So some quick background information.  I'd like to equate being a bowling mom is a lot like being a soccer mom, but I have never been a soccer mom before.  I've only been a basketball mom, t-ball/baseball mom, swim team mom, gymnastics mom and tennis mom before.

And allow me to clarify, when I say I have been a sports mom, it means I have driven them to every practice, cheered for them at every competition, and bought them all the paraphernalia associated with those sports.  I was not however the awesome mom that organized stuff, sent out emails, watched the kids while sitting on the bench or any other such gung-ho activities that some moms are capable of.  In my head I was that awesome organized mom, but luckily I knew that keeping up with their schedule was all I could handle and I kept my mouth shut when it came to volunteer.

So I've had some time off and a new school year has started and I got a lovely little email that stated that my high school son could join the bowling team if he wanted to.  I asked him about it, expecting him to say no, and to my surprise he said sure, he would like to try bowling.

I thought bowling would involve throwing a ball down the alley at some pins a couple times a week and possibly having to buy some new shoes.  I also secretly envisioned that the fancy schmancy high school my son attends had a couple of bowling lanes hidden deep inside some dark corridor.  (It's a public high school, but new and overwhelmingly large.)

I have been a bowling mom for 3 days now and my head is spinning.  We can practice on this day for free, but on this day we have to pay at one alley.  We should join a league at another alley for extra practice (and extra money).  We need to buy shoes, and a ball, and by the way, only expect the ball to last about 6 months.  (Really, a bowling ball wears out?  What does that look like?  Does it start to get square and stop rolling?)

Also we might need to buy a little bowling toolkit and a bag to put everything in.  The team must have tryouts, but everyone will get on the team (and shockingly the tryouts cost money).  Oh and once he makes the team we have a fee we will need to pay.

Needless to say my head is spinning and the dollars are rapidly flying out of my wallet.  All this because of a casual, "Hey, would you like to bowl?" question I threw out there last week.

Now before anyone thinks I'm complaining, I'm really not.  I love seeing my son involved in something.  My husband and I enjoy a little bowling ourselves and this will end up being fun.  It's just making my brain hurt right now is all.

Time passes quickly

As the title suggests, time has passed me by very quickly lately.  While I've been away from my blog...I wish I could say I was doing this:

But unfortunately it has looked more like this:

When school starts, mom's chauffeuring service starts as well.  Every time I had an idea and sat down to blog this happened:

Unfortunately I have not figured out a way to blog while driving.

Another event going on in my life is my starting up a career.  I have spent lots of hours on the computer making things like forms and editing my new webpage, but none of that involved stick figures and pseudo-funny commentary.  (Although my daughter did put some cool stick figures on my webpage, but I didn't get to draw them so it doesn't count.)


Lastly, I would like to say I blog for myself, that it is okay if no one likes my blog because I do and I'm okay with that.  But....I'm not okay with that.  In my head I'm super funny and tons of people love to read my blog and comment how much they love it.

 My reality is I write a sometimes mildly amusing blog that about five people like to read (most of which are in my immediate family making sure I'm not embarrassing them) and no one has missed it while it's been on hiatus.  So every time I go to blog I think about how no one really likes it and so why bother.

Then something changed.  Yesterday someone I have never met, liked my Facebook page.  That was huge for my self-esteem...that someone who isn't just supposed to support me pushed that little like button on Facebook.  So I'm going to give it another shot.  I'll work on staying focused (and I know you are saying "good luck with that Jen") and post twice a week.  I figure that is a reasonable goal with how busy my life is right now. 


But you have a job too.  If you find me at all amusing, please comment every once in a while.  Give me that extra boost I need to keep focused and keep going.  If you find me boring and not worth your time, I understand completely....but why are you reading this then?

Okay...so off I go...I will start working right away on a post that is supposed to be funny (unlike the boring commentary that this post is) and see how it goes....right after I take a shower and feed the cats.