Get One Thing Done

9/23/09
On the D train crossing Brooklyn to Manhattan
More Wide Eyed Young Person tips:

- Get one thing done every day

Transferring your whole life someplace new is overwhelming. Sometimes it feels like there are a million things to do and you can’t begin to think where to begin and sometimes it feels like there is nothing to do. Or sometimes you just don’t feel like doing anything.

To understand more about why I feel certain tips are super important you need to know more about me. I am formerly a perfectionist. Okay, I still am, but a different type. It used to be if I didn’t get everything done and get it done perfectly then I would beat myself up (mentally, of course). Upon entering college and realizing that it was not only impossible to do everything but almost completely impossible to do any of it perfectly - my standard berating of myself sent me spiraling into a depression where I didn’t do anything – where I couldn’t do anything for several years.

So now instead of getting down on myself for what I didn’t do I champion myself for each thing I have done. I’ve never been one of those people that go ape shit for lists and crossing things off of them. Don’t get me wrong, I get that it feels good to cross things off of the lists – it’s just that usually when I make a to do list it just gets lost. So I have become very good at keeping track of lists in my head. And I constantly try to come up with the best place to keep a list (my phone has become the best place for my calendar, so I’m hoping it’s going to prove just as useful for my lists).

So in order not to beat myself up for becoming immediately immersed in “the business” I make myself get one thing done each day. So that eventually (and I mean any day now) my list of “finish putting pictures up” and “spray that last cabinet in the kitchen” will be gone and I will have no choice but to get the lists of “contact all those people you’re supposed to” and “look up some damn auditions already”.

Also, since having my eye opening magical night thanks to Jodi Monday night, I have decided to pick which list I get my one thing done off of. So last night I redoubled my blogging effort and tried to make a date with Jodi (she counts under contacts). Tonight my goal is to contact 1 other person and at least look up the backstage website so at least I know I can find the audition info.

So that’s my tip on how to keep from spiraling into despair once you get here and realize just because you’ve changed locations doesn’t mean you’ve changed your problems. Get one thing done every day – and champion yourself – celebrate yourself – for that one thing.

Congratulations, good job, you deserve a beer (even if you can’t afford to buy one).

What else . . .

- Did I mention there’s no air conditioning anywhere? There’s AC on the trains but the train platforms are one of the most miserable things you will experience – bring a hankie (if you’re from the south), some tissue, hell, even a hand towel – because you will be dripping with sweat in the summer. Something to fan yourself with is always good, too. I was using the post card from Kat’s play, now I bring the fan from Stephanie’s wedding with me everywhere.

- Bring your umbrella with you everywhere, too. That’s good advice wherever you are. And a pashmina in September because the minute you step inside a place that is air conditioned you’re sweaty little body will start to shiver.

- Germ X

What else . . . mid September weather goes up and down from high 50’s to low 80’s. This means that they have begun turning the air conditioning off in some of the trains. Sometimes you’ll get stuck on a hot train.

I have it in me to be passive aggressive. I come by it honestly – it had been passed to me from one generation of southern women to the next. I don’t like this in myself. There’s never a worse feeling than realizing you’ve been walked all over, it’s your own dam fault, and the only thing you know to result to is petty jabs that you give with a smile on your face. So I try to weigh very carefully the moments when I’m angry to see if they are petty or if I actually need to stand up for something. When living in an apartment with 3 boys where I do all of the cleaning (most of it, anyway) and do most of the buying of things to improve life in the apartment it’s a constant battle inside me.

They were obviously fine living in unorganized squalor before I got here. Yes, I’m the one who is keeping it clean but I’m also the only one who is unwilling to live with it messy. At which point do I get angry and at which point am I being a busy body pushing myself on other people’s lives?

Yeah I bought the fan for the bathroom but do I ask them for money for it when apparently they were fine with the stinky, stuffy, pre-fan bathroom?

I believe the bath mat will stop smelling bad if we hang it over the side of the tub when not using it. I’m not their mother; I can’t make them put the bath mat up.

Where is the line?

Anyway, gotta get off the train now. More later.