Do your To-Do or your To-Do will do you...in?

Yesterday was a wonky day.

I started the morning unsure, spent mid-day flustered, the afternoon sulking, the evening running around like a chicken with my head cut off, however at 10 pm I was at complete and total peace. My subway ride home at mid-night I was even smiling and bobbing my head along to my music.

Why was my day as spastic as an only-seeing-red bull?

Simple. Yesterday's To-Do list was outrageous, way over-booked, and not prioritized.

Why was I at such peace at 10 pm?

Simple. I had finished the To-Do list.

Now, to save myself too much guilt, it wasn't entirely my fault. I had planned my day out (mentally) by the hours and at mid-day suddenly two of those hours were removed. I'm not used to people being so last minute. I come from the world of theatre and the motto there is: ten minutes early and you're on time, on time and you're late, late is just unacceptable. I guess the people I'm working for up here have not tried applying to that motto to their lives personal and professional. But hey, they're not going to change, so I just gotta run with it...literally.

Speaking of running with it...

I was trying to drop of the dog at the groomers and let that maid in at the same time. Literally galloping down the subway stairs (in heal no less). I was still a bit late to meet the maid and I had her wait for me in Starbucks. She is such a sweet lady. I offered to buy her coffee since I made her wait a little bit, and she asked me, "What's good here?" (Not the coffee; but I lied and told her to order their new Blonde Roast which is supposed to taste less bitter.) All I could think is how spoiled I've been. That here I am a 23 year old and I've been spending way too much money on over priced coffee since I was 16, and here this kind, simple lady had no idea? Later at the apartment, I watched her working and I couldn't help be reminded of one of my previous posts on the cups of water. How much water does she give away to these people everyday? How she works so hard, and for what? For people to spill lotion on the newly pristine bathroom counters, for the dog to vomit on the shiny, orange scented floors, for someone to crawl into the fluffed bed and not even think about the "water" it took to get there? Not saying that people are not grateful, however sometimes I think they just don't realize how often they are given someone else's sip of water. I often wonder how different America would be if there was a smaller gap in the social classes. Would America still even run?

Back to the To-Do list situation...

I didn't realize how bothered my sub-conscience was by these loose ends. Everything you do in your day gets you to tomorrow. Putting of something today doesn't make tomorrow not come, however it does make tomorrow a little more full. Put off a couple things and the pile up will really start to affect multiple tomorrows. I won't lie, being a Personal Assistant is tough. You are in charge of that person's To-Do list as well as your own, so prioritizing is difficult. Do I grab a bagel to hold me over until I leave at 1 AM or do I return these dresses? In order to complete my job I must do a plethora of other things that say a retail employee at Bloomingdale's doesn't have to do. I could actually be working at Bloomingdale's and be paid the same amount of money, have less stress and actual benefits, but I'm not. I chose a different path, and honest to God, where it's leading I have no idea. Life will always be full of loose ends, when they tie themselves off, there is always another one presenting itself. I'm always reminded to the poem, Road Less Traveled by Robert Frost, I had to memorize it in sixth grade and it's really stuck with me.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

So with two To-Do lists in hand I will continue to take the road less traveled, and that [shall make] all the difference.