Last week, while work at my job was scarce, my family was working, or on vacation which left me home alone, feeling very much like the beloved spotted canine companion Pongo, watching the clock until Roger was done his work and ready to play with him.
I spent a lot of time watching the clock, counting down the hours until someone would come home. If I had a dog, I would have made its' day and taken it for a 1000 walks, instead I have cats, who wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, and in fact, seemed a little put off that I was hanging around so much.
After deciding that staring at a clock was indeed a colossal waste of time, in every sense, I decided to literally get up off my ass and do something. That amounted to this,
In 48 hours I:
-Baked 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies
-Baked a tray of brownies
-Sew a hat
-Knit a scarf
-Knit 2 leg warmers
-Cleaned the kitchen
-Sew a dress
At the end of the 48 hours, my belly hurt from all the treats, my fingers had blisters from the knitting and my wardrobe had new items in it, but I still felt like even though I had a list of accomplishments (some of which I got to check off my to do list "Make yourself a dress") I still hadn't really been productive.
I did a lot of stuff, but none of it was stuff I really wanted to do. What I wanted to do in that time was to write, to read, to further my career, to learn something, to spend time with family, and friends, etc.
Today I only have a short list of accomplishments, but my day was far more productive.
Work at my Theatre is still slow, so when an opportunity arose for me to help out an old employer I leaped at the opportunity. I was contracting today. Nothing super complicated, or physically gruelling. Today I helped to install Crown Moulding in a living room. It was immensely fulfilling to take down the old Crown Mould and put up new stuff. This job is not foreign to me, I have done this before, but this time I got to see what the previous contractors had done wrong, and saw the difference to how we did it right. We did not cut corners because the job got tricky, we just did it properly because that's what we're paid for and how we're trained.
I also had an interview for a backstage costuming gig for a show coming to our theatre. It was with an old mentor of mine (who has no idea who I am) and we discussed the show, my experience in the field, and my expectations of the job. The interview went really well, and I got the job.
Today I did 2 things, well 3 if you include writing a blog post, far fewer "things" than I did last week in 48 hours, however, today I did things I wanted to do: I learned how NOT to install Crown Moulding, and I wrote (this blog), and I furthered my career by getting a new job to add to my resume. THIS day I found far more productive, because it was fulfilling, I did things that matter to me and that I get joy and a sense of satisfaction from.
My day today makes me proud of myself. My days last week, although entertaining, were far too 1960's for me to be comfortable with. Honestly, if you saw the dress I made, it looks exactly like I took it out of the musical Hairspray.
Now I am off to continue my productive day. I'm off to spend some quality time with my family :)
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