Destination Procrastination, Vindication

I wonder how many faceless people out there find themselves like me at this moment: filled with several creative ideas and inspirations, overwhelmed with sudden life changes and the associated obligations, and bearing the weight of a significant project about to rollout at my job. Thing is, if I had control over the timing on everything I would be in great shape, but I'm not a deity. Thing is, the project I feel least motivated to focus on this weekend is my top priority, and it would serve me well to work on it. Thing is, this is a pivotal point in my career ... I think.

Nothing is worse than uncertainty, well, not literally, I can think of many worse things that result in ER visits. Some job scenarios out of my control have cost me secured employment, killed opportunities to get ahead in life, and one even set me back.

My current situation is a little different. I have some insight in what's going on with this project since I'm leading the communication part of it. I know what is expected of me, but I don't know enough about where I will stand when I come out on the other side. It's a very strange scenario, one I don't mean to be vague about, but I don't have a choice. Vagueness drives me crazy when I read it elsewhere, believe me, I empathize and half-apologize.

A lack of foresight in anyone's career path can lead to many questions and reservations. They must be smacked down before their dark tentacles take hold, choking off the oxygen nourishing one's brain. I find the problem is with placing one's future in someone else's possession. It's a risky endeavor, one not meant to exist in the natural world. Mother Nature would cringe at such a thought, if she was more than a metaphorical figure.

At the end of it all, more effort is required than should be necessary to maintain control over our futures. Despite corporate policies, legal disclaimers, and unwavering personalities, do what's right for you. No one else cares about you more than you. And that applies to me too. Starting with my big project, there is a clichéd bull whose horns I must grab.

That's it for the self-indulgent blog posts for the weekend. Next up ... heads gone missing.

Let the words flow

I have been missing from this blog for the past month since my spring semester courses wrapped. It has a been a tumultuous four weeks filled with the common theme of change at home and professionally. Among the bigger things we have decided to relocate back to my hometown and I am creating managing a change communication plan for a large reorganization at my company. Crazy stuff. But great experience.

I had vowed to myself I would not let this summer slip away; that I would use the available time to write new stories and catch up on a laundry list of reading. Of course I had not anticipating moving so soon, spending free days and nights on sorting, purging, cleaning, and eventually packing possessions. To my surprise, purging items is quite freeing, no longer do I have a collection of four hundred-something CDs following me around from storage space to storage space, not once listened to in the past decade. Without all that stuff I can focus on what matters. It's a great feeling.

So I wasn't sure what I would write today, but felt I owed it to myself and my readers to put something out there. Despite the several levels of change occurring this summer, I have several things to look forward to - no worries, I won't bore you any more with introspective personal stuff. But I will mention that my short story, "Johnny Versus the Creatures" will be part of the upcoming anthology Unnatural Tales of the Jackalope from Western Legends Press, due out in a few weeks. I will post more info as we close in on the launch.

On that note, back to my life at rink side as my now 13-year-old daughter trains with her coach.