My Process

Inertia: most powerful force in the universe. I imagine if I had an urgent need to feel accomplished and powerful I could drop in on random blogs and leave anonymous comments--seems a popular pastime, and it can't take much energy--but instead I've done little more today than fill the gaps in my record collection 99 cents at at time. Yes, record collection. I'm old enough that to call it anything else takes effort, and, apparently, I'm not making any effort today.

It'd be nice, I suppose, to be able to start a project before that feeling in the pit of my stomach, the one that's somewhere between antsy and infuriated, tells me that the last possible minute has arrived. It might be nice, satisfying, even, but I don't expect to know. This habit formed a long time ago, during all those semesters when I could let my subconscious hash out my papers while I did whatever I did before God gave the gift of the Internets to procrastinators like me. Type out the pages between midnight and three a.m.? No problem. Most of the hard work was already done.

Today, on the other hand, the hard work is not done, and my subconscious is as idle as the rest of me. My gut knows the clock is ticking, but I'm not yet moved to act. After all, I have days (days!) before I teach again and more than a week before I make that presentation. Technically, I am still on break. Who am I kidding? Pass that iTunes gift card. No time to waste: I need to buy a song.