Kickin' it into second gear...

I’ve always said that I need to be in three places at the same time and today I really mean it.  But maybe I just need to be three people at the same time – that would work better.  Just for a day or two, anyway.  This morning I’ve been to town to run errands, hung curtains that I bought six months ago, put a load of clothes in the washer & dryer, swept and vacuumed and done maintenance on my Ebay listings.   And I have so much more I need to do.

On a typical day, my first person would do laundry (where did all this laundry come from anyway?).  She would cook a nice, nutritious lunch and serve it on china instead of paper.  She would create a Martha Stewart worthy atmosphere making my home picture perfect.  She would go to the bus stop, help Genevieve with her times tables, feed all my animals, fix the girls an afterschool snack and then have a gourmet dinner ready at 6 p.m.   I like this person already.

My second person would be concerned with money matters.  She would get busy taking pictures of all the ebay things I have stacked on my shelves waiting for time to list them.  She would print my shipping labels and go to the post office with all my packages.  She would reconcile my bank statement, pay my bills on time and finish getting my tax records ready to take to the accountant.  While she’s at it she could find a little extra money to deposit in my bank account. 

With these other two versions of myself hard at work, I will have time to write and do other things I like to do.  My book is beginning to take shape again and I feel like it’s a child that I need to feed all the time.  When I feed it, it grows – when I don’t , it kicks and screams.  But after a prolonged period of self-doubt and self-criticism, I think I am finally kicking into second gear.  I hope this roll I’m on will last.  But, I need those other two versions of myself - badly.  My children would probably argue that they are already here.  After all, writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia – or so says E.L. Doctorow.