By Joan Whetzel
I’ve been pondering my life lately. Looking at the choices I’ve made,
the way I think, the way I decide to do things. I’ve come to the realization
that I’m hardwired a lot like my dad. Then it felt like the universe reached
out and whacked me upside the head. OMG! When did I become my dad?
Whenever the universe drops a few more “challenges” in my lap (I can
think of a few other choice words that I’d like to use), first I get mad, plot
a little revenge against the person or entity that’s raising my stress levels
along with my blood pressure, then I take care of the elephant in the room in
the quickest most efficient way possible. I can’t count the number of times I
saw my dad stress out over seemingly overwhelming odds dropped in his lap, then
suddenly come up with an organize plan for fixing it in the most efficient way
possible.
Refrain: OMG when did I become my
dad?
Over the years I have planned things like vacations (haven’t been able
to afford one of those in years) and even picnics. I’d pull out the road maps
and plan the route; plan what’s packed for the trip or picnic or trip to Miller
Outdoor theater; plan for every contingency; and make sure everything makes it
into the car – on both ends of the trip.
Refrain: OMG, when did I become my dad?
I have found, especially in recent years since my husband’s death, that
making lists of everything that needs doing and all the steps involved, calms
my mind. It also feeds my OCD need to organize EVERYTHING!
Refrain: OMG, when did I become my dad?
I’ve also noticed that I can’t stand leaving things undone.
·
Can’t get up in the morning without making my
bed.
·
Can’t leave bills unpaid when I have the money
in my account to pay them right now.
·
When facing a “challenge” requiring several
steps to fix, I can’t sit around waiting for the ball to land back in my court
before I collect everything I need to take care of the next step. I have to collect everything I know I’m going to need – well in advance
– and stack the items in neat little piles, organized by the “challenge” that
needs fixing. Each pile is then organized into paper-clipped bundles that
represent the step where it’ll be needed and each paper-clipped bundle is
placed in chronological order in its pile.
·
Even my preparations for doing my taxes are
organized. Receipts/Documents are collected in a fanfold file, labeled by
topic, and all the receipts and documents are placed in chronological order or
by sub-topic (check stubs or documents for income are paper-clipped by income
source). Makes it easier at tax time, since I won’t have to do so much
organization when I sit down to do my taxes.
Refrain: OMG, when did I become my
dad?
A couple of weeks ago I created another one of my Excel spreadsheets to
track the tasks I was doing at work. I started pondering all of the Excel increasingly
complex spreadsheets that I have created for myself in recent years to track my
spending, to keep track of my taxes and income, and a whole bunch of other
stuff that I do. Yeah, just another shining example of my OCD need to stay
organized and on top of things. Anyway, I got to thinking that if dad had had
the opportunity to learn Excel and saw all the neato-keeno ways that it could
be used to organize just about everything, that he would have LOVED
this tool. The universe just whacked me upside the head again. I suddenly saw
me and dad trying to one-up each other in a never-ending Excel spreadsheet complexity
competition.
Refrain: OMG, when did I become my
dad?
