A confessional story of inefficiency and disorganization of mammoth proportions
Generally speaking, I'd go ahead and give myself an 'A' for getting things done in an efficient, timely manner. From thank you notes to blogging, photo albums to friends' birthdays I think I do all right. Oh wait, that should be "USED" to do alright. Not now; oh, whoa, not now. I have managed to make an utter and complete mess of anything related to the post office since Shorty arrived.
Here's the saga of the breakdown of how I have managed to waste RECORD amounts of time with absolutely nothing but a disaster to show for it:
It started with the birth announcements. Before he arrived, I took the time to review my mailing list and ensure names were up to date, even getting together a set of address labels and painstakingly ensuring the addresses were all correct and present. However, I didn't complete the last task I'd intended which was to pre-select the card so I could simply pick the pic, upload and order.
Post-bebe photo uploads and camera clearing was a disaster and it took at least a month before I took any suitable pictures, let alone get them on my computer to review. Around the time I was ready to go.. (design selected, created on an online account and awaiting purchase... just needed to decide between two different versions...) Someone whom I am SURE was a well-meaning bystander strongly discouraged me from using any current pictures and waiting until he looked more like a 'regular' newborn and less like a sonogram. Ouch. I thought my baby was beautiful but seems some think preemies are scary. Birth Announcements squarely placed on back burner.
Then the three month bday rolls around and I've been receiving BA's from babies born long after mine it seems... time to get a move on. Plus, I'd really like to get some thank you notes out for all the kind deeds and gifts and how lovely to send with some pictures and an announcement! Although the 'thank you' list goes temporarily missing... we take some pictures thinking surely there will be a suitable picture from these, right? Around this time though, I head back to work and *kapow* nanny shenanigans and other figure-out-work-and-baby demands just about make this ever-present item on the 'to do' list, invisible.
Incredibly, a month or so passes and I choose some pictures but none fit into the BA design I had poured such thought and effort into previously chosen from the online gallery. Then I decide that given how late I already am with these, I just need to go ahead and create/design my own and have it printed... Given my history at this point, I suppose it might be quicker than taking more pictures and getting them loaded onto my computer (with the completely full hard drive), select, upload and order. And now that I somehow swept into this web of perpetual delay the thank you notes, I had gotten a few dozen out the door but finally gave up on finding what was a 'temporarily missing partially completed thank you list' and decided to just recreate it by wandering around Shorty's room and writing down gifts and what kind souls had bestowed them upon my son. Let's not forget the sweet love-shrouded friend who gently told me to quit thanking her. You see, without a list it seems one can easily forget thanking someone once and send additional thank you notes while remembering sending a thank you that was never sent at all. The mind reels.
Another month later, the design/announcement had created and file sitting on my computer collecting dust. At this point I am in complete awe that I could have taken this long already. Seriously, what is going on here? Ah, we aren't halfway there yet, reader. Because ANOTHER MONTH passes before I finally proclaim it to be 'finalize the birth announcements week' and enlist the help of the nearest person I can find: the Nanny.
Yet somehow, even with two people working on the effort, I manage to bog it down another few weeks until she takes it upon herself to just have the file printed. Ahhh.. a ray of light on a cloudy day. Bless her heart.
A bit unconventional, but printed and in-hand a couple weeks later. The next day, by the way, I get the most gorgeous pictures of the little man's 6 month portraits back from the photographer. Stark contrast to the photos I cobbled together. But whatever... if I keep critiquing myself on this it may NEVER HAPPEN I tell myself - anyway he is 6.5 months old... just mail them.
Somehow, -this should not be a surprise- I have lost the labels I so painstakingly worked on months before. Not wanting to recreate all that work, I look for the labels in my spare time thinking 'it will be so much faster once i find the labels' and yes, a few more weeks pass before I find the labels. The darling nanny even came over to help out one Sunday afternoon so that I could address the cards and get them out the door. I couldn't find the stamps that day so decided I would just drop them off at the post office and have them stamp them for me. I managed to find a single sheet of stamps later that week, so stamped and mailed a handful of announcements. Incredible. 7 months and barely a dozen out the door. GAH! And to save my life, I could not tell you which ones had a stamp placed on and were sent on their way.
Labels on the cards and thank you notes written (in some cases re-written, but awaiting at least a picture I tell myself- thinking i should AT LEAST include a picture for being so late to get the notes in the mail...) and around this time I start to worry that the postcard format of the BA just doesn't seem right. I need to wrap it up! So now they wait for envelopes (which can't be found to match exactly) and now the labels have already been adhered to the cards and will all need to be re-written. Again, the stack sits.
A couple weeks later, determined to finish this massive disaster of an effort: The cards are spread out on the kitchen island for a week and a half as I tried to connect thank you notes with announcements and at least package them together. Then it's time for the new nanny to return to our house with the kiddos and by Monday night I accept that with an event/activity every night for the rest of the week, i'm not going to have time to complete the effort and stack them up and set them aside.
Weeks pass and I give up and decide to just walk the remainders into the post office, stamp and ship. This was today at lunchtime, My friends. My stack of half thank you notes, birth announcements going out at 8+months with pictures of a 3 month old are finally on their way. NOT SO FAST... already feeling self conscious about some of the announcements not being in envelope (it was a really cute postcard design in the beginning)... Then the lady at the post office tisks me for not 'puttin that baby in an envelope' And after her SECOND plead from the post office lady (seriously!) to "take 'em back home and bring them back when they are in envelopes" I give in. And I sh!t you not: I heard someone say "you better hurry and get those out before he turns one!" (insert mental image of one of "The Peanuts" characters)
Yes, I returned home today with a stack of unmailed cards. Unbelievable. I'm pretty sure I've put enough time and energy into these damn cards to have sent out 4 different sets... yet, I most certainly have NOT DONE THAT... nope, i still haven't gotten the first ones out yet. However, I received a beautiful BA last weekend of a baby born (3rd child in the family) after I had the postcards in hand. *sigh*
Sadly, I've even omitted half of the fumbles and mishaps of this story in this recounting of events. And it is still WAY to long for a blog post.
At this point in the saga, I ought to just give up and start focusing on Christmas cards. Or announcements for his first birthday. Maybe they'll eventually be completed and out the door, maybe I should just pretend they are done and cross it off my list. Who knows at this point. But I definitely think that the ying and the yang has returned to come to balance out for the rest of my life when I was *otherwise* efficient.
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