Time....

I never have enough. As I head out the door in the morning, I have big plans for my day. I have a list of things I want to accomplish, and a timeframe, and a hopeful attitude. When I get home in the evening, I still have a list, a timeframe, and a hopeful attitude.

Maybe tomorrow…

I got some of those things ticked off my list today: I deposited my income tax returns, I took my prescription in to the pharmacy, and I got my car washed. I know I should probably wash my car myself but, when?

I don’t have time…

My friends have learned to deal with my inability to commit to a timeframe on the weekends. When asked when I want to go somewhere or do something, my answer is likely to be “when I get there….” I spend my work day setting up appointments and then trying to keep them.

Most of my patients are very forgiving if I am late for my appointment. And I usually try to call them if I am going to be more than a half hour late. It isn’t just me being overly compulsive about time: my documentation is time sensitive and so is the “Daily Activity Log” that I have to fill out.

I remember when I was the Operating Room Charge Nurse. The surgeon might call me into the room and tell me what was going on with the patient and ask me to go out to the Surgical Waiting Room and talk to the family. And I told them exactly what the surgeon told me to tell them. Invariably, a family member would say that the surgeon “said it would only take an hour and a half and it’s been two hours!” And invariably, I would ask, sincerely, if they would like me to go tell the surgeon to “hurry up!”

Some things cannot be hurried. They have to happen in their own sweet time. It is hard to be patient sometimes, too. Really, I don’t have time to be patient. I guess I need to make time to be more patient. It’s one of those things that I cannot change; I just have to accept it.

I remember as a child, sitting at the supper table and listening to my parents talk about how “time flies” and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I mean, I understood the words but, really, time didn’t move very fast at all. The week before my birthday, or Christmas, was about a month long. And summer? Lasted forever.

Time should be more fair. I have always thought that the ride in Disneyland should last as long as the wait in line. I think that is only fair. Of course, I would want a minimum time, too, because I have actually not had to wait in line very long at all in Disneyland. Sometimes. Other times, I have waited an hour to get on a ride that lasts no more than 5 minutes….

That reminds me: remember “E” tickets at Disneyland? Boy, that was a long time ago, huh?

But then, I have to wonder what my days would be like without time. It might be a nightmare: “I’ll be there when the sun is right over your house” That probably wouldn’t work, would it? 

No, it seems to me that I will have to make a truce with my watch. And the clock in my car. And the bottom, right-hand corner of my computer screen. And the microwave oven, and the coffee pot, and the clock on the wall in the kitchen. I think I might be outnumbered so, a truce is definitely a good idea.

I would sit down and figure out what I am doing that is wasting so much time and keeping me from doing the important things in my life but, you guessed it:

I don’t have time…..