Wasting time

I can't seem to get going AT ALL today. I'm already starting to freak out about how quickly time seems to be flying, and how my time in Asia will be over before I know it, and I just want to get out there and keep savoring every single minute....but lately, with work getting busier and busier, and my work days tending to last 10-12 hours, I seem to crash a bit on weekends. Don't get me wrong--there are still adventures a-plenty, and I'd have to say that my life pretty much kicks ass at the moment, but MAN am I feeling lazy.

So this got me to thinking about wasting time. I have had many different forms of procrastination/time-wasting/lollygagging throughout my life:

Ages 5-9: Playing with Barbies

Ages 9-13: Playing video games....Nintendo and Super Nintendo. Good times :)

Ages 14-18: Obsessing about boys. OK...THIS remains to this day, except now I just obsess about ONE boy. I thought about boys ALL THE TIME. I constructed elaborate, romantic fantasies in my head, wrote in my journal about whatever crush I happened to have at the moment, listened to love songs while hugging my pillow, and talked off the lovely ears of my friends as I regaled them with details about how, "omg, he, like, totally LOOKED AT ME AND SMILED!!!!" Uff da. I needed to be held down and slapped multiple times.

Ages 18-22: There was a bit of a shift in procrastination/time-wasting practices once I started college. Namely, I transformed into the picture of efficiency and the thought of procrastinating gave me a rash. I studied constantly, did about a gazillion extracurricular activities, and only took breaks to go jogging. And, well, I still obsessed about boys, but only in the gap between my student senate and equestrian team meetings. Yeah. I was zero fun in college.

Ages 22-26: Once I entered the real world as a bright-eyed Teach For America corps member I learned that extreme stress can drive one to drink (Author's Note: this is my own personal view, NOT the view of Teach For America or any of its affiliates or any of that jazz....and, um, I absolutely recommend TFA to ANYONE!!!). And so I drank. I drank and had dysfunctional relationships. I also got a lot of manicures and read a lot of trashy tabloids.

Ages 26-27: Once in grad school, and no longer able to afford manicures or drinks or tabloids, it was back to my anti-procrastination ways...well, with a bit more balance and plenty of time carved out to make friends and have fun. And, for some reason, whenever I would need to take a small break from writing papers and allow my brain cells to recharge, I found myself reading Strong Bad E-mails. And exchanging mass e-mails with Bangin', Juice, and Worm...my bestest grad school friends.

Ages 27-28: Oh man. NOT the best time for the time wasting, in that I waste a lot of it (though, um, no longer during the 10-hour workday!!). And where does this precious time go? THE INTERNET. Sheesh. Blogging, reading blogs, reading the news, watching videos, listening to podcasts, downloading songs, Googling people, writing e-mails, FACEBOOK, horoscopes, Wikipedia.......there's just...so...much....TEMPTATION out there!!! And right now I'm sitting in the lobby of my condo, getting devoured by mosquitos, and writing about how I waste my time when I should be out exploring this wonderful place.

I guess, though, the difference between my time wasting NOW and the time wasting before now is the fact that I waste my time in the interest of expanding my own horizons, reconnecting with people, learning about things, and becoming inspired by the writing of others.

At least that's what I will tell myself so that I can fall asleep tonight without feeling like I wasted an entire day of my life!!