I’m not sure why, but for some reason I have never been terribly fond of doing things until I absolutely need to.  Some would call this procrastination.  I call it a method in which to live by.  This characteristic of my personality drives Don bananas.  Last Friday we were planning to head south for the weekend.  Don typically works until 4:00 and I was going to be off at 12:30 that day which would give me ample time to pick up a few things at the grocery store, alter my jeans, let the hem down on one of my tops and hem the sleeves on my jacket, tidy up the house and get our bags packed.  Don threw me a curve ball mid morning when he sent a text informing me he was getting off early and that I should “be prepared.”  I asked him what early meant and his response turned up a 2:30ish comment.  I quickly adjusted my plan of attack and decided 2:30ish was surely going to fall somewhere between 2:31-2:59.  I chose 2:48 and moved on with my calculations.  I added the time it would take for him to drive home from work and the time it would take for him to shower and assemble the things he wanted to take which brought me to an approximate departure time that was very near what I had originally planned so I sent him a text that said his “get off” time should work out perfectly.  He had no clue about all the figuring I had done nor did he have any idea he would hear the hum of my sewing machine when he walked in the door.

I realized there would be a certain degree of schmoozing necessary as with any plan between a man and a woman when the woman is me and the man is him so I decided to add something to my list that wasn’t originally there.  This was my buffer to protect me should he arrive sooner than expected.  I’ve learned it’s important to let this addition be something you’re doing for him.  That always seems to work well.  On this particular occasion we were planning to attend a fund raising event the following evening hence the alterations on my clothes and I noticed his new jeans were in need of hemming so I added them to my sewing pile.  Another time buyer is hoping they will think of something you can do for them.  Due to the fact that it was our brother-in-laws’ birthday, I distracted him by asking him to write on the card which prompted him to get creative and he asked me to whip up a small bag for the gold coins he wanted to give as a birthday gift.  This was working out so well for me but he still felt the need to deliver several “Let’s go!”comments which ended up making him look like a very predictable and mixed up cuckoo clock!  He popped in the office/sewing room every 3 minutes as a matter of fact!  A very common response I tend to use is “Where’s the fire?” and another one I like is “Everything is going to work out just fine.”  I use these quite often and I’m getting sort of fond of the deep, low pitched growl that comes out of him following my comments!

Eventually we left town and reached our destination with plenty of time to do what needed doing. Don mentioned Brad Paisley’s song “Waitin on a woman” once we were on the road and he was all in favor of me writing about our time clashes.  He loves to complain about my procrastination and he loves to believe that one day he will change me but I also believe he understands the lyrics of that song and that he knows waiting for me will never be a waste of his time.