Yippee!

Have you ever had the experience of really needing to do something, but then you lollygag a little, and suddenly time has passed, and you haven't done that thing you really needed to do? And the more that time passes, the more you need to do it, but for some reason you just can't?

And you look at the clock or the calendar and think to yourself, Gosh, I really need to do that; but with every passing hour or day, the task becomes increasingly impossible. So you feel guilty and possibly ashamed, and you silently berate yourself and lose sleep over that thing you need to do but haven't, and you tell yourself, Other people don't have this problem, other people are responsible.

Or maybe that's just me.

I approach procrastination as if it were a contact sport -- one that requires years of practice and knee pads and is rewarded in the end with trophies and cash endorsements. I usually procrastinate over the rather mundane, like doing the laundry or writing thank you notes. But every now and then, I play in the big league and partake in the kind of procrastination that can lead to night sweats -- the kind connected to something important, something big, something that involves other people or big future dreams.

I have neglected finishing a Very Important Document (read: book proposal) for three months. I often would wake up sometime before 2 a.m. and silently fret, then promise myself that tomorrow I would finish it. I am very happy to report (not that this means anything to anyone but me) that just a few minutes ago, I finally -- yes indeedy -- finished the stinkin' Very Important Document and sent it off to The Agent. It needs more work, but at least it's no longer sitting on my desk, giving me the evil eye.

This is reason to celebrate. I think I'll put off starting on my taxes and instead relax with a little Law & Order that just arrived from Netflix...