I can totally understand the psychology in principle. In practice, it's staggering.
Oh man just reading that quoted paragraph was brutal. I... think I'd better hurry up and get to the lab.
If this post sparks a long comment thread, I will find it bitterly ironic. Or I would if I knew what ironic meant anymore.
I understand that real estate is moving slowly in Holland, MI. So not to worry.
We should quickly start talking about something dirty so LB doesn't have to feel bad.
I know someone who has left a house sitting empty in Cambridge, MA for at least four years. Maybe five? It's been broken into and also damaged and flooded by a storm. He doesn't seem to feel any urgency about selling it or seeing that basic maintenance is done.
I used to have recurrent stress-mares about having to move in 1-2 days, and walking throughout a giant aging decrepit house, and finding more and more rooms filled with my shit.
In fact, that's probably why I found the OP anecdote so rattling.
I had a nightmare last night about some computers that I had to leave behind when I procrastinated too long on a move. They were old and broken, essentially, but I had hoped in a not-very-effective way to one day recover the stuff on the drives.
Aaaaaah shudder.
I've had stress dreams about leaving boxes of semi-useful crap places, too. I think the last one involved leaving several boxes of vinyl records I never listen to in a dorm room at a college where I was giving a talk, and having to go back to the dorm room, now occupied by some freshman dude, and having to apologize for leaving my crap in his room and hoping he'll give it back. I also kept worrying that female undergraduates who were walkign around in towels for some reason would think I was some sort of creepy prowler. And, oh yeah, worrying that I am really a complete hoarder like my grandfather for compulsively hanging on to old vinyl.
If you guys are going to stay on topic, I will not be able to read this thread at all.
Glargh. Stuff of nightmares.
But think of the many Unfogged lurkers who decide every day that they don't need therapy. Lose, Win.
By the way 12 recounts a real event. Talking about it helps. Thanks guys!
Talking about it helps.
Probably because I laughed at him. But he first told me he'd had dreams about inchoate loss. Then he told me the dreams were about old computers he'd had. Not quite what I had imagined!
Wait, how do people have enough fucking money to have a house sitting around unused? Some people bought an apartment in my building (granted, a studio, but that's still $160K or so) I think because they were doing a NY-DC long distance thing and are never, but I mean never there. The little notices of monthly fees that get shoved under our doors rather than mailed for some goddamn reason, there are a bunch of them sitting halfway under the door. I do not understand how people have so much money that they think "we could get a hotel in NYC once every few months for several hundred dollars, or we could buy an apartment for $160K and use it every few months."
This stresses me out, too.
12, 16 Why didn't you just pull the drives so you could recover the data later? That way you'd have something else to procrastinate about (speaking from personal experience here).
finding more and more rooms filled with my shit
Do you have to get a special kind of dumpster for that, or do you just flush it down the toilet? Either way, seems like your dream-self could have been a bit more sanitary.
I do not understand how people have so much money that they think "we could get a hotel in NYC once every few months for several hundred dollars, or we could buy an apartment for $160K and use it every few months."
But the apartment can be decorated to one's own liking!
19: that was the plan I procrastinated on.
If an Unfogged commenter would like to purchase a nice one-bedroom in NYC for use once a blue moon, I would be very willing to take care of it, free of charge.
And it's an investment, sort of? I'm not saying it's a sensible investment, but I could perfectly well imagine someone thinking that part of their retirement would be safer as an apartment than in the stock market.
23: You could go to Smearcase's building and tell a locksmith you're locked out? Sounds like they'd never notice.
If an Unfogged commenter would like to purchase a nice one-bedroom in NYC for use once a blue moon, I would be very willing to take care of it, free of charge.
Although I might do just that if I ever hit the lottery, I might not take you up on your kind offer as I'd be reluctant to turn you out on the street on the rare occasions I wanted to use it.
I understand that if I lived all the way up there, I'd have to take up knitting to survive the subway rides.
...okay, that's worth free rent.
No, I'd have options! Hell, I'd have the savings to rent a hotel room.
Seen on a T-shirt this weekend:
Top Ten Reasons I Procrastinate:
1.
If an Unfogged commenter would like to purchase a nice one-bedroom in NYC for use once a blue moon, I would be very willing to take care of it, free of charge.
Yeah, uh, essear, does that person you know in Cambridge have any interest in finding a house-sitter?
I might not take you up on your kind offer as I'd be reluctant to turn you out on the street on the rare occasions I wanted to use it.
You know, there is an alternative…
I would be very willing to take care of it, free of charge.
An old roommate of mine has a gig like this in N/ew Orl/eans. It is the home of someone's deceased parents. He doesn't even stay there ever, as he also maintains a residence of his own in the city.
I understand that if I lived all the way up there, I'd have to take up knitting to survive the subway rides.
Only if you have lost the concentration skills required for reading. Or that's my reason anyway.
I've gotten really dependent on podcasts while I knit on the subway. I had a weird incident on Monday -- my headphones broke (they do that a bunch) so I bought a new pair for the way home. And then I found myself with a blisterpack with headphones in it and nothing to cut it open with.
I scrabbled at the pack like a demented monkey for an embarrassingly long time, because it seemed absurd that I should have headphones with me and still not be able to zone out to something. Eventually, the guy sitting next to me offered me a pocketknife, which I was impressed by and grateful for. It takes a certain je ne sais quoi to offer a knife to a stranger on the subway.
So I stabbed him, and took five dollars out of his wallet.
It takes a certain je ne sais quoi to offer a knife to a stranger on the subway.
It's a good way when you want someone else's prints on the knife.
Is it my imagination or has blisterpack becoming increasingly "robust", or at least more ubiquitous?
I recently helped open some mail-order items designed for someone with arthritis/reduced hand functionality--blisterpacked to the fucking max.
Yes, the blisterpack stuff is HORRIBLE and especially ridiculous in a mail-order scenario.
I recently helped open some mail-order items designed for someone with arthritis/reduced hand functionality--blisterpacked to the fucking max.
And in this scenario, of course, extra bonus super ridiculous.
I use a huge stump outdoors and an exacto knife for opening them. I guess that tin snips or wire cutters would be OK also, and could be deployed indoors.
Much more robust, and I haven't adjusted. Up until a year or two ago, I could get almost anything open with my fingernails and maybe my keys or a pen or something. Newer blisterpacks, there's no hope but a real cutting edge.
Maybe because I order a lot of stuff from Amazon, but I've been finding packaging to be getting easier to open. (Amazon has some kind of named initiative encouraging this.)
I order so much stuff from Amazon! But I keep getting the terrible blister packs. You must be getting all the good stuff.
Huh! My new headphones came in a sort of plastic clamshell sort of crimped around cardboard, not heat-sealed plasticky plastic. I can't remember what Amazon is calling it. Safe packaging? Smart packaging?
Maybe it's like the secret Chinese restaurant menu. Code words or something--a flag on the "right" accounts.
My favorite is when you get something from Etsy and they really take the time to make a beautiful presentation, with a handmade ribbon and pretty wrapping paper or whatever.
I sometimes feel like I should write them a thank you note. Or at least keep their card and revisit their site. But instead I post about procrastination on an eclectic web magazine.
I ordered a couple CDs from Mo Tucker (this was before she was out as a Tea Partier) and they came in a reused box held together with Scotch tape. I got the impression that she was very cheap.
18: The guy I know with an abandoned house bought it when he was expecting to live there for a long time, I guess, and at first procrastinated on selling it because the market had crashed. Also, he was living for a while in cheap visitor housing in the new place he moved. Where he would do crazy things like leave the door open at night while he slept so that once he found a deer in his apartment. Not exactly the most practical person I know. Anyway, [Heebie is a super awesome sweetie-pants], so presumably an abandoned house doesn't matter much.
46: I am always split between being pleased at the presentation and rolling my eyes because how are you ever going to make any money if you send me extra ribbon and homemade confetti and a little notebook that says 'inspire' on the outside?
36: That's been what I've been experiencing. I thought it was just muscle loss from aging until I started hearing other people complain. My technique is EMT shears and then immediate escalation all the way to a Dremel cutting tool.
how are you ever going to make any money
Oh yes, this.
and was just handed a lot more money by a Russian billionaire,
Oh, that guy.
I suppose I should think twice before posting comments as completely identifying of the person I'm talking about as 50.
In other news, I was forced to play in a student/faculty kickball game today. Kickball! Apparently not just for 10-year-olds anymore.
51: You hand make the ribbon, confetti, and notebook but get the actual goods for sale from a Chinese prison workshop.
55: there's a bar in east cambridge that has a league. Who won?
55: Kickball has been big with the 20-something crowd for a while now.
You should have suggested dodgeball instead.
58: For a kicker with a good foot*, kickball can be dodgeball for people in the infield.
*Plus the hitting with the ball to be put out thing.
Oh, the students totally kicked our asses, and I think we even cheated.
Using you guys to tell me what I already know, I don't have to worry that I'm getting depressed if I've been sad for all of one day since an intense therapy session (in which Lee said I'm oversensitive and too likely to cry, which is why I'm not going to her with this question) and I'm also at the worst time hormonally for feeling weepy anyhow. Not to mention that there are two kids, one of whom is finally processing not seeing her family and crying hysterically a few times a day and the other of whom had an uncle she may or may not have known die today and I don't know how to address that, plus job/financial stuff (not mine directly, but still) is shitty, and I've had a horrible sciatica outbreak. I mean, if I feel like I want to curl up and cry for a little while, that might just be reasonable, right?
You sound like you need a hug, nap, and ice cream. Come to Aunt Heebie.
62: Throw in some gin and I'm there.
Realistically, plans for tonight are pizza for dinner so I don't have to cook (and sangria for those who can have some), doing Mara's hair (only the back half of her head), take a relaxing bath at some point. Nia's recent (reasonable) freakouts have meant we both need to be involved in the bedtime routine because I can't be in two places at once. Things will get better, I know.
63 made me so happy that I feel better, except the part where my back is exploding. Yay! Thanks!
Why would Aunt Heebie hurt you? Bring your checkbook.
Sounds reasonable to me and I am a mental health professional! Of sorts.
The OP actually made me feel good about my procrastination because, hey, I could be a lot worse. My paperwork's a mess, personal projects are behind, my work is often on the edge of deadlines, now and then I've missed out on big opportunities, but at least I haven't let anything go for years or spent thousands of dollars due to procrastination, like people in the article. So, yay me!
But halfway through the thread I remembered that my uncle might be kind of like that. And he's the main caretaker of a family property. And I haven't seen it in years, so I don't know what condition it's in. Hmmm.
And I haven't seen it in years, so I don't know what condition it's in. Hmmm.
You should give him a call to check in one of these days.
And, you know, thank me for making that explicit.
When you have a minute.
I was thinking "tell him we're planning on visiting, ask what would be a good time," but your way works too.
50 is VERY easily guessable via Wikipedia (and I'm not even a physicist.) And through public records would probably allow anyone to identify an empty house in Cambridge. You should probably take it out.
Yeah, probably the last sentence of 50 should be redacted.
KLONG KLONG KLONG KLONG LABS KLONG KLONG KLONG KLONG KLONG KLONG
Aw, Thorn. You deserve a walk in the breezy sunlight to a used bookstore & an ice-cream parlor, & back to time in a hammock while the kids look at bugs in the yard.
The guy in 50 deserves some dried-out deli meat.
75: too late, I've already stolen the deer I found in his living room. Now to butcher it and sell the meat to Halford. Profit!
61: I'm super sensitive to the "oversensitive" line. Ugh. The thing is, the depth of feeling that makes you sensitive and "too" likely to cry is probably also what makes you all the other nurturing, generous things she loves. Also, I cannot imagine anyone carrying the load you do without bursting into tears now and again. Tears are kind of a natural response to exhaustion, physical and emotional.
Tears are kind of a natural response to exhaustion, physical and emotional.
Or shouting loudly at assholes in traffic. Some guy I know gets like that.
Heebie is a super awesome sweetie-pants.
1
I can totally understand the psychology in principle. In practice, it's staggering.
I can understand in practice. I still haven't got my place in NY on the market although I moved back in January. It's a lot of bother which I find it easy to not deal with. And I am only 90 miles away, a longer distance would make things even harder.
This article made me feel kind of hyperventilatey about all the things currently in a state of left-undone around our house. Am I going to turn around and it will be ten years later and those pictures will still be all boxed up in the middle of the guest room floor? and those hideous blinds still on the windows and and AGH YES YES I AM AAGGGHHHH
In other news, I just got some hair goop from Etsy that was not packaged up with pretty extras in any way at all but it made my hair behave itself so nicely and be soft and shiny too so HOORAY ETSY 4EVA.
||
I have wedged myself in git. Pull says my branch is up-to-date; push says I need to pull. Advice?
|>
It is this stuff. It dried a bit crunchy but when I gave it a quick combing out it became delightfully soft and un-product-y, with pleasingly defined waves and curls.
Nothing like the hair in the pictures there, of course, because my hair is not like that and because I dragged a comb through it.
Huh, that hair gel is intriguing, though I don't even know what some of the ingredients are. I haven't played around with proteins in my own mixtures, but Nia's grandma wants me to start using gel on her edges and I need to find one that firs my healthiness requirements.
And thanks to all who were nice to me and reassuring. That helped a lot. Sleep probably will too.
This post and thread is timely in that I have still not moved completely out of my old apartment (which is furnished and has internet) into my new one (which isn't and doesn't). I was going to try to do the move last weekend before starting the new job, but while I did move a lot of my stuff I didn't end up getting around to moving the stuff I actually use on a day-to-day basis and am therefore still really living in the old place. I have another week until I have to be out, so it's not too bad. I have of course also been procrastinating about buying furniture and getting the internet hooked up at the new place, which is what is ultimately driving my behavior here.
Oh, and 63!
And yeah, Thorn, crying seems a pretty reasonable reaction in such circumstances.
88: doesn't that delete all my work? Ha, funny. No.
Trying to rebase; have now resolved commits, added, tried to continue, same conflicts. Twice. I wonder if I have some arguments out of order.
this was before she was out as a Tea Partier
Did not know this. Sad now.
96.1: oh, you had unpushed commits?
Or uncommitted changes? Fucking git.
If someone put a button on the site labelled "Click here to PayPal $1 to the Buying Thorn Gin and Chocolate Cake Fund" I would click the hell out of it. Just saying.
100: I would click the hell out of it
Like a rat in a cage ... with the button wired to its septal nuclei.
Really, my life is not all that bad and I am not all that good. I don't want to feed people here misinformation. I have an actual job, which is why I'm able to be on here, and parenting is something I chose to take on and generally as pleasant for me as it is for anyone else. I think I just complain more compellingly or something. The back pain is pretty wretched, though, and I'm sure I ought to see whether chocolate cake would help.
I'd suggest indulging in more yarn as well, but after what you admitted about your current yarn supply, I don't know if that would be enabling.
103: I will have you know that I am working on a sweater for Nia from stash. Not working very hard on it since I mostly sew these days, but at least working. Maybe I'll make Lee take the girls out somewhere and spend an afternoon in my attic room finally putting all the rest of the yarn away.
It's also to my credit that a lot of the yarn is from the knitting mill my grandfather owned, so I can't get rid of that for sentimental reasons even though it's mohair in psychedelic colors. I do think I'll pass along most of the acrylic (also hand-me-downs from a lot of people) to my friends who yarn bomb more than I do. So there won't be too much yarn forever.
Post title keeps making me think of this.
mohair in psychedelic colors
Good news, bad news...