Sunday, March 13, 2011

Life Without Time



* I'm sort of simulblogging today-- you'll see why in a second, but I just ran out of time to do more than one blog post a day!!! It's rough when you live your life without time:-)


Okay, so yesterday I woke up in a panic, thinking it was my day to post at the Torquere LJ page and then I posted, and then nice people nicely informed me that I'd gotten the day wrong.

I was mortified, but not as surprised as I might have been.

It happens a lot to folks like me.

I very clearly remember having a conversation with a work supervisor. Could I make a deadline? Sure. I could do it. Was it possible to get a reminder that the meeting was that day? PLease?

The supervisor was dismissive--he was a bit of a tool anyway-- but he couldn't understand why it was so hard for me to remember a meeting. Just put it on the calendar, right?

Wrong.

For some of us (and we know who we are) we could have big neon signs flashing and a whole chorus doing the can-can all saying "MEETING WEDNESDAY" and we'd still miss the meeting simply because we forgot that TODAY was the Wednesday in the sign!

My Aunt, a successful graphic artist, told me that she had the same problem. "And people just look at you, like what kind of moron doesn't know what day it is, don't they?"

But it's true! And that's not the only break we have with time, either--for those of us who create or write or knit or basket weave, one minute becomes ten minutes becomes an hour becomes "Holy God, was I supposed to pick up the kids?" or "Oh, Geez, I'm sorry I missed our lunch date!" if we're not REALLY careful about it, doesn't it? And the really sucky thing about that time-reality disconnect is that when it happens the most is when we're creating something REALLY awesome. We slip into the 'create' zone, and the world goes away, and dumb things like 'time' are only a construct, and the true reality is what's going on in our brains.

Until we, say, you know... post a blog during someone else's time slot, and spend the rest of the day mentally thunking our foreheads with our own palms. *Doh!*

Anyway--the good news is that these really annoying time/space disconnects DO create some of our best art. I call it riding the dragon, and I even had my daughter make my little dragon avatar for just that reason. (He's eating plotbunnies... sweet baby... he got hungry!)

Anyway-- that was me, going on a little dragon tour, and I'm back now. Yesterday I posted the pictures for the Green's HIll werewolves books--I'm going to put them up again, because they're awesome, and because I love Jack & Teague, and because Green's Hill is one of my favorite places to be. I bet time doesn't exist THERE either!


4 comments:

  1. I tend to mix up days, quite often.

    Love the dragon eating the plot bunnies.

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  2. Sounds like a situation for google calendar, which you can set up to email you reminders. Very handy!

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  3. That is precisely why I use the alarm function on my phone so very much. I have alarms for all sorts of things, but mostly to remind me that *today*, yes this day, in, in fact, 30 mins, I need to collect my daughter from school. Best invention ever I think.

    Plus new books from Amy:) I'm a happy bunny right now.

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  4. In a perfect world we would each have a kindly android who would gently wrench us back to reality with comments like, "You have been sitting in one position for six hours,dear. Now you must get up and walk around the block." Or, "You have a business meeting downtown in 2 hours. You should shower and change out of your sweats first. I have set out your business meetings suit and shoes. Out of your chair, dear!" then the android would stand by to make sure you got mascara on both eyes, to brush and arrange your hair, and to drive you in to town and find a parking space while you attend your important meeting.

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