Enjoy the day folks…here’s hoping this one makes you smile at your own form of crazy!

Ask anyone who knows me, I have very little patience. I have an abundance more however than my sister who has none. Zero. Zilch. Nada. One of my favorite stories I love to tell when she is no where around is us traveling back from the beach one day. We were in that happy phase of being young enough to feel carefree around one another and old enough to be friends…on most days. Now we are older and the absolute best of friends. Comfortable to compare notes on how much we are alike, and how crazy we make our lives. She alone totally “gets” me and my neurotic need to control….everything…in advance….with a plan. Always a plan. My sister doesn’t always have a plan…she’s sort of the “where fools rush in” type of crazy…wing and a prayer is how she rolls.

Anyway, if you ever decide to ride in a car with my sister a little helpful hint; if you are easily rattled, take a shot of something or at least tuck a nerve pill somewhere handy. She drives like Lucifer himself is chasing her AND she will continue to talk to you, nonchalantly pointing at the scenery as you go whizzing by. Totally or at least somewhat oblivious to her surrounding and the paleness of your fright frozen smile.

It was just one of these type of sunny afternoons that we were coming home from the beach. Traffic on I-40 was the normal amount of traffic for a weekend, and my sister who is a huge advocate of the left lane being for passing, and the right lane being for those who choose to poke, would go right up to the bumper of a slower car before whipping around it. We were going along at a wonderful glide, in and out of traffic like a well oiled sewing machine…Even to the point that my sister commented on how easily we were passing this long line of cars at such a good speed…effortless weaving in and out and it was all fun and games until we saw the hearse. The long black slower moving hearse at the front of the line we had just effortlessly sailed through. The word mortified doesn’t even come close to scratching the surface of how bad we felt.

So in an attempt to somehow make up for this horrid display of disrespect, we pulled over to the shoulder and silently mouthed “I’m sorry.” to the long line of cars in the precession.Trying to not avoid making eye contact, but yet truly wanting to hide from the glares on the faces of the people in the cars as they filed by trying to get back in the formation that we had busted up by our impatience.

Ironically, I think we both have this needs to over plan, over schedule, and overwhelm ourselves to the point of destruction because we are chronically tardy. Seriously…we are those type of people who set the clocks in the car five minutes ahead and then instead of it helping, stress about doing the math in your head subtracting the five minutes to make yourself feel better that your aren’t as late as you thought you were when you first got in the car. Your not on time either…your just five minutes earlier in the late.

Show of hands…who relates to this craziness? Go ahead, let your freak flag fly readers, I know you my tribe of split personalities are out there. Crazy over planners that will have the perfect dress, jewelry, music, and flowers picked out in detail but still be five minutes late for your own funeral. You were probably looking at the clock of a normal person and thought you had five more minutes, it’s okay. I totally get it.

I think about this story often in my rush to plan and make sure I am ahead of the curve. Just this weekend I started planning my Thanksgiving menu. I can’t help it, internally in my head there is a little voice quietly saying…in three days it’s Fall…Do you have costumes for the kids? Maybe you should go ahead and buy candy. Are you going to order those turkey breasts from Costco again for Thanks giving dinner? If so, you better call today. The best time to buy wrapping paper is now you know. Have you started thinking about getting the kids to write their lists to Santa. Early bird gets the worm you know….Oh yeah, Ansley wants a bowling birthday party in February. Wonder if you can reserve lanes in advance!

In many ways I envy my sister and her special brand of crazy. Her impatience stems from doing too much all at once, not being able to say no and suddenly she is doing three different pot luck’s in one weekend. I’m not too far from that, the only thing that makes us just a tad different is the planning of our crazy. I know I am going to be crazy the third Saturday in the month at least four months ahead of time, and still continue to plan. I think somehow it is my super power. That and I’ll research the recipes for all three potlucks, with varying degrees of difficulty…just to add a dash more cra-cra.

No kidding people, this is my day to day life. Thinking about dinner as I pour my first cup of coffee. I will shoot for six, we will eat at seven and baths may or may not happen. Why? Because if I have a plan, then I’m not as stressed. To me it makes perfect sense. Doesn’t make it right though does it? Just my own little vicious circle of time. Patience is not one of my best virtues, but I’m working on it though. I may just wait to plan what outfits we are going to wear the day after Thanksgiving to go get the Christmas tree this year until closer to Halloween.

That shows real growth right? ~ Kimberly