I have been trying to write a post all week. I wanted to link up with Finish the Sentence Friday, and I have a few half-finished posts about “When I was nineteen…”
They all suck. So I came up with some random thoughts about nineteen.
*****
I was 19 years old a quarter of a century ago. That is hard for me to believe, because in my head I am still in my mid-twenties.
I dress better now, though.
I turned 19 in 1990, but for ten months, I was 19 in 1991. 1991 is a palindrome, with the number 19 both forwards and backwards. #mathgeek
19 is Gwen’s field hockey number, and it has been for all four years. Last night she played in her last high school game, and we both cried.
I have a child born in each century. Gwen was born in the 1990s, and James was born in the 2000s. I hope that when she is very old, Gwen’s great-grandchildren will be in awe of their amazing great-grandmother born in the last century.
19 is the 8th prime number (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19) Not to brag, but I knew that without looking it up. #stillamathgeek
*****
And then I was stuck. Kristi suggested that I have a glass of wine and free write, but I only had vodka and that did not improve my writing. I’ve allowed myself to get distracted for the last two weeks; I even tweeted about it.
If I had no self control, I’d spend the entire day watching lip sync contests on You Tube. #timesuck #totallyworthit
— Dana (@KissMyList) October 26, 2015
Time sucks suck. Although to be fair, not all time sucks are created equal. I would argue that the best time sucks are actually well worth one’s time.
Completely worthless time sucks:
Waiting on hold with the cable company. And then waiting at home for the cable company to make a service call.
Pairing clean socks.
Vacuuming or sweeping when you have children between the ages of walking and moving out.
Searching for the perfect emoji or Bitmoji to include in a birthday text to a friend. Because nothing says “Enjoy your special day!” like your decapitated, winking, cartoon head nested in a gift box.
Candy Crush, or any other game that has no payoff other than annoying your Facebook friends when you ask them for extra lives.
Stupid quizzes on Facebook, like “What Friends character would you be?“ or “What style of eggs would you be?“ Monica, of course. And scrambled, or maybe over-easy.
Totally worth-the-time time sucks:
Staring at a flickering candle until inspiration hits. I’m still waiting, but I’m very zen about it, and the room smells lovely.
Watching YouTube videos of Jimmy Fallon’s lip sync battles with celebrity guests. Emma Stone, in particular, is awesome.
Binge watching The Walking Dead or any other awesome television show. Because television makes you smarter and prepares you for the zombie apocalypse.
Reading my blog. Even when it’s an incoherent mashup of writing prompt, random thoughts, and bitmojis.
The clean socks! The pairing of socks kills me – I find it painful and mind numbing. I am trying to make it into a chore one of my kids has to do but they aren’t falling for it.
In the meantime, keep staring at that candle… I think it is working, after all!
It really does! And I’m almost ready to dump all the socks in a basket and let everyone pick out their own.
Yes about The Walking Dead. Love that show. Is Glenn dead or not?! I need to know!
I need to know too – why haven’t they told us?? Aargghhh!
Reading your blog is ABSOLUTELY time well spent and I’ve missed being here!!! Hopefully have the folks all moved in and can get back to some semblance of a normal life…whatever that is. That sound you hear is me trying to shake the cobwebs out of the writing part of my brain. I’m going to try your candle technique.
I’ve missed you too, Mo – glad everyone is settling in. Be careful with those cobwebs – they may get tangled up with mine!
Love the dress 🙂 I had a few of those. And a perm. I get mad at myself for Time Sucks but sometimes I think our brain just needs a little rest from being SO PRODUCTIVE ALL THE TIME. Therefore, I can completely justify my Jimmy Fallon lip sync obsession. YES to EMMA STONE!
I had the perm too! I like the idea of resting our brain – I think you are right. The fun time sucks are like brain recharging!
Love the #mathgeek references and the worthwhile vs non worthwhile time sucks. You might call this cheating, but I found it fun! 🙂
Thanks Mimi!
I love that you’re a mathgeek! I am married to one! I totally enjoyed your post – my useless timesucks are – obviously waiting on the phone, answering doorbells only to see an apologetic face telling me they thought it was the third floor, which it isn’t, which they would have know had they looked at the one-foot-tall number when they stepped out of the list, arguing with our security guard, getting over my laziness and walking to the market only to find that particular shop closed, errgh.
The timesucks absolutely worth it are browsing books – ah, could get lost for hours and hours and never feel guilty, a long bath that becomes a bathroom scrub and deep cleaning while I am at it, phone calls from friends, going to Facebook just to see one message and getting caught up with a whole lot of others..and two hours later, remembering why I was there in the first place.
Hehehe – I think you’re awesome and so glad you wrote this post!
Thank you Vidya! I never feel guilty about time spent with books, either – totally worth it!
I wonder if I can count Instagram as a worthwhile time suck. 1. I follow cool photographers and often get to see inspiring pictures. 2. I spy in my children and their friends.
These are both noble endeavors, yes?
Worthless time suck #3 for the win! We swept our floor three times yesterday. And it was filthy every time. Off o waste some time with Jimmy Fallon videos…
The floor is just a lost cause, isn’t it?
Love your randomness!
I don’t believe in wasting time. It’s a SIN.
Reading your words is def. contributing to my intellect!! xx
That’s sweet of you to say, Kim – thank you!
I’m going to click on that Emma Stone one!
She’s really good, isn’t she?
Jimmy Fallon’s lip sync battles are awesome! Also, the cable company has got to be one of the worst time sucks known to man…
So true!
I love that you went with it and that it is just what it is! I got bored with Candy Crush so I downloaded Cookie Jam. DON’T DO TI!!!!!!! And, “children between the ages of walking and moving out” cracked me up. I just vacuumed & there is laundry in the dryer waiting to be folded, but I’m reading FTSF blogs instead. Blogging is such a huge time sucker, but so worth it because it allows me to connect with great people like you – just wish we all lived closer so we could actually spend in-person time together once in a while.
I agree! At least when I read blogs, I feel like I’m doing something productive. I learn, I connect, I laugh…I don’t do any of those things while I’m sweeping the floor.
Jimmy Fallon is always a good time suck. Alas, I spend too much time on Buzzfeed when I should be doing more productive things.
PS This year my dad is 73 and I am 37. No one in my family understands the palindromic awesomeness of that, but you might!
I absolutely do! Right now Gwen is 17 and my dad is 71. Matt and I are both 44 (kinda cheating, but still).
I like the worth-the-time time sucks. I’m looking forward to those this weekend.
By the way, I still feel like I’m in my late 20’s. It was magical. Then again, early 30’s was being a new mom. Can I be in my early 30’s forever? That’s how I’d want to freeze time.
Let’s see what you say in ten years, Tamara. I’m loving my 40s – where I am, where my kids are, where my marriage is…I hope I always want to freeze time where I am right now.
Gotta say I’m feeling refreshed after reading this, Dana. Didn’t feel as if I was wasting my time one little bit.Delighted to learn I’m not alone in the blogging-and-coming-up-with-topics-is-sometimes-such-a-slog department. Yay! And man was it fun to add in all those extra – – – – – -.
Loved reading that your two are born in different centuries. My two were born in the same hospital but not. How is that possible? The hospital changed names in the intervening 20 months.
And lip syncing!!! Yes. Have you seen Emily Blunt’s efforts? She’s a star. Check her out. See what I did there? Gave you another chance to wile away the day … Enjoy!
I have seen Emily Blunt – she is awesome! My kids were born in the same hospital, but no name change. My husband was born there too. Not me – I’m a rebel.
Ha ha ha! I love this. Why? Because sometimes I feel totally sucky too and it’s nice to know I’m not alone. So thanks for that. Not that you suck.
I DO hope your daughter’s grandkids are in awe of her being born in the last millennium. Cool! And I think the vodka definitely helped.
It may have helped, but I’m not going to make a habit of it! Glad to make you feel less alone – call me anytime you feel sucky and I will commiserate with you!
What a fun stream-of-consciousness post. I feel like we were having a chat, with a glass of wine and smelly candle nearby 🙂
That’s so nice of you to say, Christie – I’m glad you felt that way! Next time I light a smelly candle I’ll think of you.
Walking Dead. Candy Crush. Pairing socks. Pinterest. A full day right there. And hey, I managed to cover two centuries with my kids as well…yay me!
Yay you! It is kinda cool when you think about it. I notice it when I have to fill out a form where I list both kids’ birthdates.
Reading your blog- always good for a smile or ten. Definitely not a time suck! And I agree about Jimmy Fallon lip sync battles.
Thanks Erica. Has SC ever been in a lip sync battle with Jimmy? Now that I would like to see.
Sounds like we had a similar kind of week with writing and blogging. I had my girls home for three out of the 5 days this week with Election Day being a full day off and two half days for parent-teacher conferences at their school. I gave into it and figure there is always next week, but love what you did here and was smiling at the randomness, but fun way you approached this, too 😉
Thanks, Janine – I hope next week is a five day school week!
Haha, this is amazing! I love how you went with it. I too thought about doing the prompt this week, and couldn’t come up with anything good. Your blog is definitely worth reading, and NOT a time suck! I find the best book and makeup recommendations here 🙂
So true about vacuuming and sweeping. The first one especially when you have a cat who sheds all over the moment you just vacuumed!
Cats, dogs, kids…they all make it very hard to keep a house clean. And I’m so glad you think my blog is worth reading – thank you!
This totally made me laugh! AND another good time suck (which I did yesterday) is to watch all the Jimmy Kimmel Mean Tweet videos. Then I watch you tube highlights of the CMA, then a re-watched when the voice played the microphone game on Jimmy Fallon and wondered how I didn’t see Gwen and Blake coming…
Oh, and the Laura Ashley frock is dreadful- says the chick wearing the polka-dot romper:).
Ha – and yet those looks were so in vogue at the time!
Love those Mean Tweet videos – I really could get lost in YouTube forever.
Candles are good, but an open fire is better.
Your comment about “between the ages of walking and moving out” made me laugh.
I LOVED the BitToonThing you made for me – it was far less creepy than your head in a box.
Jimmy Fallon vids are always worth it.
I miss you. Glad you wrote this 🙂
An open fire is better, but a bit more dangerous on my office desk! I miss you too – I want you back on my couch, drinking tea.
If you could create a desktop fire-pit, I think you’d make MILLIONS! And yes. I want to be back on your couch, drinking tea, too. Maybe next fall, when I’m over for college 🙂 THAT would be lovely 🙂
1. I can spend hours watching a candle.
2. I’m afraid of Walking Dead, as I don’t like the gross stuff. I’m bingeing on The Fosters though, so get IT.
3. Me, too. All.
4. See above.
5. I had to delete Candy Crush. For real. As in for real delete.
6. That whole century thing is pretty cool except that I feel old as I was actually excited that I was 19 the very last year of the 80’s.
7. Bed.
8. See you tomorrow (SQUEEEE)
Love this.
Love candy crush one because you and your hubby made me feel so bad about the level I was at. .I stopped playing.
I do love those quizzes…my spirit animal pays a big part in my every day life (not).
Facebook in general is the biggest time suck around. .totally not worth it until you connect with someone or see an amazing picture or need to make sure a large group of people know where to meet.
Worth it time sucks. ..
Looking at recipes on pinterest (can’t help it. .it’s my job )
Trying to find the perfect pokeno gift-kwanzhanumas is coming soon.
Looking at danas lists…I could do it all day long. I get sad I don’t have more money though, because I want everything.
Your blog. ..I cherish the moments I take to sit down and read it. It’s always good, usually makes me cry at some point, and I’m always glad I took the time to read it when I’m done.
Love you!
Love you too – and your comments always make me smile, or cry a little. In a good, I’m-so-grateful-for-our-friendship kind of way.
Loved seeing you yesterday, Kristi – so grateful this blogging thing brought us together!