If there’s one thing I’ve been consistently good at my entire life, it’s putting things off.  When I grew up, I learned that there was a fancier way to express that idea. It’s called…  wait for it…  ‘procrastinating.’

Actually I started honing this skill before the official start of my life.  I was what they call two weeks ‘late.’ But if you ask me (and by dint of you reading this, it’s implied, to a degree, that you are) I wasn’t late, I was just waiting for the perfect time to be born. I wanted to make sure everything was squared away in utero before embarking on the next leg of the journey, and that everyone on the other side of the curtain was prepared for my arrival.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed on both accounts. Partly because a uterus is no place for right angles, but mostly because there is no perfect time for anything.  And asking expectant parents if they’re ready for a baby is like asking first time astronauts if they’re ready to be shot into space. Yeah, they’ve done their research, they’re excited for the big event, and they’re going to say “yes, yes I am ready,” but in both cases there’s a lot more diapers involved than anybody cares to admit, and a better word for ‘ready’ is ‘willing.’

Voltaire (yeah, I’m quoting Voltaire all of a sudden) warned us that “Perfect is the enemy of the good,” which is good advice (though not perfect. Ha!).  And I think it speaks directly to my own personal problem with getting stuff done.  Because that is a key element to a good procrastinator: waiting for the perfect time to start.

In my previous posts I go on and on about being forced to wait. But I guess in some way, I didn’t mind the waiting as much as I mind having no control over it.

Now that I have a baby in my life, the activities that make up my regular day have unstuck themselves from their normal places, and become entangled with the responsibilities of parenthood. Now I do the basic things I need to do for her, myself, and our house when I can. And as I’m learning how to readjust myself to my new life I’m finding that the challenge has now become not letting the good becoming the enemy of the okay.

It’s 3 in the morning and we’re leaving for Fresno to visit relatives in a few (seemingly short but in all honesty regular-length) hours, and I’m not sure if I remember where where I was going with this. But I don’t want the okay to become the enemy of the mediocre, so I think I’m going to end this right about here.

The point is I feel bad about not posting more regularly even though I’m pretty sure no one really minds. My procrastination has become worse because the idea of a perfect time has receded even further back into the world of forms. Not just unreachable but also unseeable.

I’ll be writing more often, but probably shorter posts in the future. I’d hate to let mediocrity become the enemy of productivity.

Oh, and Voltaire also said this, so… whatever, right?

The title of this post, like my life, is inspired in part by this song…