The Procrastination Queen Gets Overthrown

So I shamed myself into cleaning the dining room and the lower level kitchenette.  Yep, right after posting my last blog, I stood up from the computer, rolled my eyes a little, heaved a huge sigh…and got to work. 

 

And now, all trace of Christmas is packed away in bins and boxes and stowed in storage closets to await the next grand unveiling.

I was all sweaty and a little disgruntled afterwards, but the Procrastination Queen is No More!

Well, at least until she finds the next thing she doesn’t want to do and finds an excuse to avoid doing it.

Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just throw a wreath on the front door, and buy one of those pop-up Christmas trees that are pre-lit and pre-decorated. I could be done with the whole holiday decorating thing in less than five minutes. (I’m assuming I’d have to wrestle the pop-up tree out of the box, so I’m allowing a little extra time for that.)

 

But every year as soon as the last slice of pumpkin pie is served at Thanksgiving dinner, I find myself romanticizing over how our living room would look all lit up in its Christmas finery with candles glowing on the mantle and a cheery fire crackling in the fireplace.  And I instantly become a sucker for those confounded twinkly lights.

Besides, I’d be kidding myself if I tried not decorating for Christmas. One year I had a broken foot and hobbled around with crutches wearing a cast up to my knee and I told myself it was a good enough reason not to decorate that year.

And I managed to live without the twinkly lights…at least until the week before Christmas when I couldn’t stand it anymore and dragged the Christmas tree up from the basement and put it up.  And I wasn’t even hosting Christmas that year!

I think about what life would be like if we didn‘t fuss over things like Christmas decorations or fancying up our holiday table. Sure, things would be much simpler. But – to me – there’s just something a little more special about candle-lit centerpieces and charger plates and fancy napkins folded into pretty napkin rings.  

Probably I’m just trying to get my guests to notice their surroundings and not pay so much attention to the actual food I’m serving.  A gourmet cook, I’m not!

Besides, if we didn’t show off our decorating accomplishments, we’d have no need for cable TV stations like HGTV. We wouldn’t need Pinterest either.  And we'd all be saying, "Martha, who?"

So I guess I should simply accept my addiction to twinkly lights.

And I should also recognize that the Procrastination Queen isn’t dead. She’s only in hibernation. 

Sigh.

Pinterest Revisited

So I’ve been on Pinterest for a while now and I’ve gotta admit that I’m just a little bit addicted.  The inspirational quotes!  The cool party decorations!  The clever home organizational tips!

But sometimes the pins confuse me.  I mean, someone will take a photo of a normal person with normal hair and write, “Love the hair!”  What confuses me is that the person’s hair is nothing special.  There is no style to it that I can discern.  And the color is, like, brown.  So I speculate that the pinner has perhaps thinning hair and is dreaming about having a full head of hair again someday.  Or maybe the pinner has wildly curly hair falling to her waist and is thinking that the short, relatively plain straight brown hairdo would be SO much easier to work with.  I dunno.  We tend to want what we don’t have, don’t we?

Sometimes the pins annoy me.  Like when there are 25 consecutive pins about how to decorate one’s nails with polish so that each nail is a different color. Or so that each nail has a zig-zag design.  But Pinterest is nothing if not educational.  I mean, I’ve learned that ombré nails are apparently a big thing right now if I am to believe the multitudes of pins about them.

Ombre nails. Go for it!

I’m sure there are people who enjoy all those different nail looks, but to me those manicures look like an awful lot of effort for something that would last about two seconds after I started scrubbing the bathtub.   When I was looking at photos of all those fancy fingernails to include in this blog, I came across one photo that downright scared me.  Long, pointy nails with metal decorations glued to each one.  Clearly, this is a person who never scrubs a bathtub.  Actually, I’m not sure how she  does much of anything.  And I suspect that, um, even a simple potty break would pose certain challenges for any person sporting these nails. 

Another trend I’ve noticed on Pinterest lately is that people pin all sorts of photos of white rooms.  Everyone marvels over these white rooms.  They make comments like, “Would love to live here!”  And, “I want this room!” 

Now I will admit that the photos are sometimes pretty impressive.  I look at those rooms and think, “Wow, that’s awesome!  Of course, sometimes the room is overlooking, say, the Pacific Ocean – so it wouldn’t really matter if the room was decorated with a ratty white couch and a threadbare white rug.  But sometimes the white room is just a regular ol’ room in a regular ol’ house.  And practically everything in it is white.  White walls, white ceilings, white furnishings, white knickknacks.

An all-white baby's room. With a chandelier, yet. Right.

I can’t help but think that if I were to walk into one of these houses, I wouldn’t even be sitting there for five minutes before blurting out, “You know what this room needs?  A little color…”

Nope, I'm just never going to be one of those uber-decorator types who go for certain looks that most folks simply don't "get."

One of my favorite things on Pinterest is seeing all the creative ways people have figured out how to serve food. I read pin instructions like, “Carve out a gourd and spoon in veggie dip – makes a great container and looks good on your Thanksgiving table!”   Huh.  And here I just use a plain old bowl.  Who woulda  thought?? 

And did you know that you can make your own marshmallows?  I’ve not bothered to delve further into such pins because (a) I’m not a big fan of marshmallows, and (b) if I were ever to need marshmallows, I think I would simply run to Kroger and pick up a bag.  I cannot imagine putting time and effort into making homemade marshmallows. 

Individual seven-layer dip cups. Brilliant!

Nevertheless, if I were to one day lose my mind and decide to make homemade marshmallows, I know exactly where to look to find the “how to” instructions.

The other day I actually put one of the pins to the test.  I made individual cups filled with 7-layer dip for a little gathering we had.  And my father-in-law raved about them. He thought they were a marvelous idea.  So…see?  Pinterest has improved my life already. 

And who knows?  One of these days I might invite you over for a party and might even serve you veggie dip from a hollowed-out gourd.

YIKES!

Just don’t expect any homemade marshmallows.  And definitely don’t expect me to be sporting talon-like nails with sharp metal decorations affixed to them. 

Frankly, I prefer challenge-free potty breaks.  I don’t care what Pinterest says. 

My Interest in Pinterest

Oh boy, what have I started now?

Yesterday someone suggested to me that with my blogging and the quotes I put on Facebook every day, I should get on Pinterest. She even said she’d follow me.

While I’ve heard of Pinterest, I really have no idea what it’s all about. I mean, I assume it’s another social networking site. And I know you can “pin” things to it. What things I have to pin, I have no idea.

So I clicked on the site and asked for an invitation to join. And I was sent an email that said I was on the “waiting list” to join. That kind of irritated me because (a) I have to ask to be included in their super-secret society? And (b) someone then gets to decide if I’m worthy of being a member?

Whatever.

Yet a few hours later when I received an email telling me I was invited to join, I immediately clicked on the link.

What does that say about me? That I can’t stand not being “in” on things? That I am without a modicum of pride and I jump at every opportunity to be a joiner? Perhaps. But I prefer to think it says that I’m simply curious and I’m trying to learn about and keep up with modern trends. Yeah, I think I’ll stick with that answer.

So apparently I now have a Pinterest account. I don’t know what it looks like because I haven’t seen it. But I’ve gotten several emails telling me people are following me. Really? They must be bored or something to be following me since I have no idea where I’m going. Not yet, anyway.

Of course, it was only a couple years ago I wasn’t so sure about the whole blogging thing. And here I sit writing my 254th blog. This is an activity I thoroughly enjoy, so I don’t imagine I’ll stop using Blogger.com anytime soon.

Unless, of course, some bigger or better blogging website comes along. Which I’m sure is in the works as we speak.

So joining Pinterest means that I now have one more user name and password to remember. It probably means I have to add another app to my overcrowded iPhone. And it means that there is something else on the computer that will divert my attention and keep me occupied instead of, oh, I don’t know, talking to people face-to-face.

So let’s see. I have a Facebook account (well, actually, three accounts – but two are for work). I have a Twitter account that I haven’t accessed in well over a year. Probably I can’t even get back into it because I’m sure I’ve forgotten the password. But that’s probably not a bad thing because I am really lousy at trying to write a message using only 140 characters.

I have Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail accounts. I have a Google+ account that I’m not even sure I’ve ever used. I am a member of Plaxo and LinkedIn. I email, text, IM and I have about a bajillion accounts on various things like bank sites, travel sites, shopping sites, and X-Rated video sites.

I have an Etsy account and an eBay account…

What? Oh, so you WERE paying attention! Yes, I’m totally kidding about the X-Rated video sites. I so don’t need that kind of trash on my computer infecting it with all sorts of viruses and stuff. As it is, I get enough SPAM from places like the Central Bank of Nigeria telling me I’m the beneficiary of some inheritance and I only need to send a nominal fee of $630 to cover administrative costs associated with the release of the funds. Or that I’m an international lottery winner, which is weird because I don’t even play the lottery in my own home state. Or that I can get 20% off my order of male enhancement pharmaceuticals if I order by midnight.

Anyway, you get the idea. I – like many folks – have way too many online things going on. No wonder we freak out whenever we see the “low battery” signal or panic at the thought of a power outage.

Nevertheless, I am sure that I’ll get the hang of Pinterest. I will probably even enjoy the experience and find interesting things on the site. But for now, I’m a little stressed about my first “pin.” What to do, what to do? Oh, hey, can I possibly pin a link to this blog? Wow, now that’s a GREAT idea…