Loose Ends
When later is now
Susan Nienow

I have sharpened four pencils, gone back to the bedroom to put my ring on, phoned a friend and chatted for 20 minutes, and went into the dining room to find out what my other half and my daughter are doing. College friends are coming this evening and staying for three days and then family comes into town for the weekend.

I need the house to be cleaner than my apartment used to be years ago so that my friends can see that I have grown up in the 30 years since I have seen them.

They are coming tonight, so everything have said for the past three weeks that I would do later has to be done right now. The good news for them is that my other half is doing the cooking.

Our daughter is here on home leave from her job in a very Third World country. I think we have seen her three times for longer than hello and good-bye. She has scheduled three months worth of activities and job-related work into three weeks. One of us will be dead by the time she leaves. But she is the reason I have put things off - I want to be available when she does breeze through.

The largest pile on my desk is the one designated "I'll deal with this later" and includes coupons, the paper from the doctor listing my cholesterol levels - do I have to keep that? - a recipe for a rabbit repellant, a half-finished crossword puzzle and a birthday card I forgot to send.

Putting things in file folders works well when I am deciding what to do later. If I put the papers in a colored folder, put a name on the tab and file it, then I never have to deal with it. I have three file drawers full of things I thought were important enough to save. It reminds me of my closet. I might need that someday so I keep it, and that puts off making a decision about it.

Creativity is foremost when I put things off. If it looks like the job is done, my other half is happy, and so am I. He doesn't really care why my desk looks clean, only that it is, since I told him his desk has to be clean when the company arrives.

Now the vacuuming. The floor next to my desk gives me valuable storage room. That is really where the crossword puzzles go, the catalogs, the coupons and the magazines. But I have been informed that the floor can't be considered a permanent storage place. I did buy a basket and put it at the end of my desk for these things, but it's full.

I'm finally finished, but two file drawers won't completely close, and my other half just ruined my day by saying that "later" is just a kind word for "procrastinating."