that procrastination is a bad idea.
News flash, folks!
Anyway, this morning I was in charge of the retreat breakfast for my wonderful Chorale, and I had a major meltdown as I flurried and scurried out the door because I hadn’t gotten my prep work done ahead of time. I overslept this morning, so my “get up at the crack of dawn” plan didn’t work, as it rarely does. I was tired last night after getting all m shopping done (but no one forced me to wait on it until late afternoon).
Then, suddenly, as I was a couple of miles out from home, I realized, ‘I didn’t bring the eggs!’ They’re sort of important for breakfast burritos. I didn’t have my phone with me, so I couldn’t call my husband. I had to turn around and go back home to get them. Now the fat was really in the fire! As I’ve mentioned before, these events have only a short window of time for people to get their food, as breakfast starts at 8:30 and rehearsal begins at 9:00. So if we’re going to get everyone fed we have to have things ready to go on the dot.
Amazingly, I managed to get there by about 8:10, and as usual there was a crew of people who had come early. I had three egg-cookers who got right on it, and we got the coffeepots going, and various people stepped up for various tasks, so that we really were ready for the first people who came in the door. Whew!
Which is not to say that there weren’t some messups. One of them, not really the fault of procrastinating but still due to poor planning, was that I hadn’t bought enough eggs. Last time I bought 4 1/2 dozen and they were gone in a blink, so this time I bought 6 dozen. They were gone in two blinks. I had gotten a rough headcount and didn’t think we’d have a big crowd, but there were sure enough there to scarf down those eggs in nothing flat! The peppers and onions were completely insufficient and the sausage was cold, since I hadn’t had time to heat them up before coming.
In the end, though, everyone got fed one way or another, and I don’t know that other people care as much as I do about the temperature of food. Still, things could have been nicer, and I could have been happier both before and after the event, if I’d gotten things done ahead of time.
Remember yesterday’s idea about doing things for your “future self”? I needed to picture much more clearly what a fix I’d be in this morning as I decided last night to sit on the couch and watch TV instead of slicing peppers. To remind myself, once again, that the work had to be done anyway, so I might as well do it when it was the least stressful.
By the way, the picture isn’t of my food but is just a stock photo. I will be writing up the directions for these burritos over on the Intentional Hospitality blog, though, probably next week, as we work to complete the Great Website Migration. I’m very, very pleased with the new recipe plugin I’ll have on the new site. Right now, though, I need to move on.
What favor could you do your future self today?