In the next few days I have two trips, one big, one small.  Then I have less than a day in between and there is a great fear that I will forget something, hence, THE LIST.

I don’t know how you can be a teacher unless you make lists.  How else can you keep track of all the stuff you need to get done?  I actually run several lists at a time for different things and then compare those lists when needed.  I know it sounds a bit OCD, and when I was younger and didn’t have so many plates in the air, I didn’t need to do this as much.  Things have changed.

Yellow pads are the answer for me, except then I get too many yellow pads going at once and can’t always remember which yellow pad contains which list.  I mean, I can’t have my school equipment order list on the same pad as my list of travel dates, right?  Then I started using the Notes app on my phone, except now I have so many things I forget I have them, which kind of defeats the purpose.  Siri would be great as a reminder, except I don’t want my phone dinging every five minutes.  Now I keep files on my desktop, labeled clearly and separated so hopefully I can find what I need more quickly.

You know, this technology thing has really multiplied the number of lists I need and is making life more difficult.  I now have a list of user names and passwords for everything under the sun.  Things I apparently can’t live without but that I was just fine without thirty years ago.  Even when my kids were younger and I was crazy busy, I remember making grocery lists and school supply lists, but that was about it.

I have lists of contacts for people I very seldom contact, and I rely on that silly list so much that I don’t even know my own children’s cell numbers.  I don’t have to.  The list takes care of it all.  Again, I have some strange woman’s voice on my phone who follows my directions (most of the time) who dials it for me.  Pretty soon we’ll all be a bunch of blobs sitting on couches telling Siri or Alexa or some other woman to do everything for us.  By the way, why are there no men doing everything for us?  Obviously I need to make a note on my list to contact Amazon about this.

So anyway, back to the lists.  Our lives have gotten so busy and events/assignments so frequent that I have to make lists to make sure I don’t double book and that I give myself enough time to do whatever tasks that may be a part of each item.  And yes, the tasks associated with the list are also – on the list.  I told you, there are many layers to my lists.  I have to, because there are so many details associated with each thing I have to do.  I also keep this schedule on multiple calendars so that I (hopefully) don’t forget something.  When did life become so ridiculous?  Oh yeah, every time I say “yes” to something….

Last night, as my husband drifted into blissful slumber, I tossed and turned writing lists in my head.  Very difficult since I have neither yellow pad nor computer in my head to write it all down. So now, in the interest of keeping my sanity, I’m going to work on my list to get me through the next few days so I don’t forget something.  And if I do happen to forget something, despite the lists, there’s always Walmart….