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Do I Get Diplomatic Immunity?

Real time Valerean here. Well, I'm a week ahead on double posting (as expected.) Today is August 2nd; this will post on August 9th. In another five weeks I will catch up to the end of my supply of pre-written and scheduled posts on the blog and have nothing more to rely on, which is when I hope to begin keeping posts just a week ahead of real time (and keep it that way!)

It's distressing, mildly. I am a strict by-schedule writer and I always want to be way ahead of deadlines. My current project for the day job is due on August 7th; I've finished it and after a thorough read-through on paper and final edit, I should turn it in on the 4th or 5th. That's cutting it close for me, by the way.

Is it telling that I've already planned and printed my schedule for the next day job project? Probably.

I want to be more spontaneous, really I do. I respect writers and artists who are that way. It's just not an aesthetic that is natural to me. I know in part it comes from being the daughter of a chaotic mother who never planned anything, and whom I often had to rescue from her own impulsivity and lack of time and life management skills. That's the reason I learned to do very adult things like cook dinner for nine people (at age eight) and balance a messed-up checkbook (I took over Mom's when I was ten.) That's also why emotionally I associate spontaneity with negative situations and failure.

A little planning is a good thing. It helps with the day job, with grocery shopping, and with spreading out housework over the week. A lot of planning makes one OCD about scheduling everything and subject to meltdowns when the planning fails. I land somewhere between the two, leaning more toward the latter.

I need to encourage myself in this department, so this weekend I'm going to take time off from my art quilt to do some spontaneous one-day projects. I may never be completely spontaneous, but I can schedule some unscheduled creativity on a regular basis to improve myself and my creativity-- or is that self-defeating? Ha. We'll see.

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Maria Zannini said…
The number 1 reason I stay ahead of my deadlines is in case of calamity.
It prevents panic because I almost always have enough time to fix whatever went wrong.
August 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
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