List Rebellion

I have an addiction.  It’s terrible.  I can’t get enough.  It’s all over my house, in my purse, my phone, stuck on my computer screen, hanging discreetly in my kitchen cabinets.  Hello, my name is Heather and I am an addict.  I am addicted to lists. Grocery, Menus, Christmas cards, To-Do, Websites, Wishes, Books, Vacations, Ideas, Garden, Crafts, Songs, Events, Sketches, Gifts, Recipes.  These are all lists I just pulled out of my stuffed little calendar that I carry everywhere – scrap paper, sticky notes, backs of doctor’s scripts. 

I also have my tiny little notebook that never leaves my side and always gets switched between my ‘work’ bag and my ‘weekend’ bag. (Or as my husband likes to call them, the ‘Coach’ and the ‘Assistant Coach’).  And I have other tiny little ‘spent’ notebooks in drawers and on shelves at home.  These contain the best little morsels that I must keep around – little recipes, passwords, tried-and-true wines, etc.  I already have so many random, useless facts crammed into my brain that I need to keep all of this documented somewhere or else it will be lost and forgotten forever.  I am supremely organized yet somehow I still manage to be hair-brained and chaotic.  I don’t know how I manage to do it!

It is for that reason that next year’s Christmas card list begins as soon as the current year has been dropped in the mail.  The next holiday’s menu is planned no later than the last bite of dessert is consumed from the current holiday.  It drives my girlfriends and family absolutely batty how ahead of the game I am on this stuff. I am perpetually prepared for the constant apocalyptic presence of parties, holidays and events. My favorite Halloween thing to do is hand-address my Christmas cards. It’s sad, real sad and yet I just can’t seem to help myself.  I fantasize about what it would be like to live life on the fly, on the edge of my seat making decisions right on the spot – going to the grocery store just throwing things into my cart, willy-nilly.  And then the fantasy turns to anxiety – I can’t even dream of being spontaneous and rebelling against my lists without hot flashes and heart palpitations. But I am trying really, really hard to not pick up a pen and sticky note at every thought I have so that maybe someday, I can give my tiny little notebook a few days off a week.

If you are a non-list-maker, I challenge you to try it just once.  For the grocery, books you want to read, or maybe ideas for Christmas gifts so you aren’t left in a panic at 5pm on Christmas Eve buying yet another Hickory Farms sausage and cheese gift set because let’s face it, that‘s all that is left at THAT time on THAT day.  HAPPY LISTING!  We can do this together – I can make less and you can make more.