Why will you say I, Pamela Tracy, am mad?
Here's why: I am a list maker.
Last week, I received my AA's in the mail. For those of you who don't know AAs are Author Altercations. Basically we get the finished version of our book in sheet form and have one last chance to make minute corrections. Since I was on Spring Break last week, I was one happy camper because I actually had time to read the AAs carefully. Still, don't picture me leisurely sitting in my chair with a soda (complete with straw) and BonBons next to me. Nope, not me.
Instead, picture me at the kitchen table. AA's are spread out in front of me, and there's also a notebook. The notebook reads like this:
Do Chapter One
Clean linen closest (Hmmm, no wonder I can't close the door. Crib sheets! My son is four! Oh, look, here's that Christmas tablecloth I've been looking for. How long has it been? Two years? Why am I keeping all these torn and raggedy towels? One-half of linen closet now lives at the Goodwill.
Do Chapter Two
Dishes Reminder to self - stop baking in glass dishes.
Do Chapter Three
Laundry I do laundry every day. Sometimes I do three loads. Okay, I confess, the every day gets away from. Sometimes clothes wait for me to remember them for three days.
Do Chapter Four
Clean Living Room Mom's things in living room: Put books back on bookshelf. Dad's things in living room: Throw away newspapers, take shoes to bedroom, brush peanut crumbs off dad's favorite chair. Mikey's things in living room: I would need more blog space. So, you can say the word endless in the priceless tone.
Now, do the math. Four chapters a day, a 20 chapter book. It took me all week and my house is very clean. Okay, delete the word very in the previous sentence.
So, how do the rest of you tackle your AA's? Do you have as much fun as I do?
5 comments:
Pam,
Love your lists. You're a "J" on the Meyers-Briggs Inventory. So am I!
My AAs get done in one mad push. The housework has to wait until I'm finished. And my poor office! When will I take time to straighten the mess? Maybe I need to write myself a to-do note and place OFFICE at the top of the list.
Okay, so tell me what J means?
"J" stands for judgmental, as I recall. But it has nothing to do with judging people. The inventory breaks down personalities into four groups with two "types" for each group. I don't have the right wordage, but it's a combination of 8 personality types. You end up with four letters -- the "J" is organized, on time, keeps lists. The opposite is a "P" who is always late (in the extreme), can't come to closure on decisions, unorganized, etc. Another area is feeling or ??? something like analytical. Anyway, it's very interesting stuff. Google it and you should find some info.
IMHO, "J" is good!
And you know what... when I pray, I pray most that God will take away my sin of being judgmental. I am judgmental.
I used to pray for patience and now I have a four year old.
Hmm, the last set of AA's I did were done while my mother in law was having open heart surgery. I took it as a gift from God because I needed something to concentrate on during that 12 hours wait. Most of the time I do them in one shot. I sit down in my recliner with a big stack of sticky notes and mark off all the things that I see while I'm reading through the manuscript. Then I fill in the form. What does that make me, Debby?
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