I have 2 clients I need to bill. About $100 each. Sometimes I think "would you pay $100 not to have to bill them?"

I need to consolidate my 401Ks since I jumped around from job to job and now have accounts on four different systems. Moving that money around is a pain since you need to do things just right to avoid paying tax/penalty. I had it all worked out, got the checks mailed to me last year and then our HR person quit and we had no 401k administrator for three months until they hired a new one. By the time the current person started, all my checks had expired so I need to fill out all the forms again. I hate that sort of stuff and am just not dealing with it.

I need to find a new primary care practitioner. Just so I can go through the rigmarole of being an existing patient if something important comes up. Also I have a lot of little niggling things that I want to ask about.

But I hate making phone calls. sigh.

I need to clean my apartment, especially the floors and the molding things. But first I'd have to empty the dustbuster, which has some dead bugs in it and so I'm scared of it.

I'm caught in an endless loop with the mattress on my bed, which really needs to be replaced. I price them, and they cost too much, and then I start thinking, "What the hell do I need a kingsize bed for anyway?" and then I get depressed, and don't do anything further, and then one day I wake up with a stiff back and the cycle starts again.

My mother has Alzheimers. I need to make moves to get her affairs in-order, so she can move into assisted living at some time. Unfortunately, there's complicating factors involving my bum/leech brother, a second property, overdue property taxes, a car, shared power-of-attorney, and the fact that neither my mom nor I have the money to afford a lawyer to sort all of this out. And it will require a lawyer. I'm drowning in a sea of helplessness/hopelessness.

Or was I supposed to talk about the house that needs re-painting?

My walk-in closet is a disaster. It's full of three seasons of clothing from four members of our family. Chaos! I've got to get it sorted. Every Friday I say this is the weekend it will be done.

I really need to renovate my kitchen, downstairs bathroom, and front hallway. I have relatively nice new appliances, but everything else needs to go. Cabinets, countertops, flooring, walls, fixtures, the range hood, the electrical outlets... everything. I also want to move the fridge to the other side, so I can have two medium-length countertops, instead of one really long one, and one ridiculously short one wedged between the fridge and stove.

I can actually do all that stuff myself and have renovated most of the rest of the house over the years. However the last big renovation job I tackled (living room, stairwell, and upstairs hallway) took a very long time, because I got tendonitis in my shoulder and couldn't work on it for something like... 6 months I think? Maybe longer.

During that, I got so sick of living in a half-completed house that I've been really hesitant to start up anything new. Plus I have cats now that I didn't have back then, so there are additional concerns about dust and danger and keeping them away from fresh paint.

So I'm thinking now I might simply wait until I've paid off my mortgage (which will be around August 2012 if things continue to go right) and then just pay somebody to do the whole thing instead of doing it myself. The longer I procrastinate, the more likely it will happen that way instead of doing all the work myself.

I gotta make an appointment for the dog to get her annual check up.

Sorry to hear about that Thorzdad. Sounds pretty bad.

Yeah. Not getting much sleep these days.

And my insurance has changed and I need to figure out how to get my prescription drugs without being overcharged. But yesterday it was easier to pay to not have to deal with this for another month.

I need to buy a car, and I need to finish my grad school applications. I've been lollygagging on both since March.

I've needed to fix my personal laptop keyboard since about February, but catfive helped me track down a replacement and it's on its way!

I need to start selling/getting rid of my furniture, in preparation of The Great Move of 2011, which shall be filed by The Great Buying of Real Furniture of 2011.

Confronting and answering the question: "What's something in your life that you really need to replace/fix/deal with but that you keep putting off because it's such a *$%@& pain?"

No, really.

Just about everything.

The only one I can think of is really minor in comparison. My dog's toe nails are too tough to cut, so I have a Dremel grinder to keep them from click-clacking too much on our wood floors. She hates it and so do I, so I usually put it off until they are too long, and then she and I have a WWF-style struggle as I try to pin her to get them done.
Sometimes I just take her to the doggy salon and pay to get them done, which defeats the purpose of the expensive Dremel.

really clean out the closets. I changed jobs a year ago and got rid of a bunch of suits, but there's a lot more to be done. Not just with the clothes, but with the stuff! I'm 40, so I've accumulated a lot of things over my life. But I'm 40, so I also have a solid idea of what I never ever need or never ever want to see again. We can't/don't/won't ever have kids, so much of the ephemera in storage will have no meaning or value to whomever is left sorting through it, eventually.

Still every time I go to weed out the rest of the clothes, I end up with a stack of things that needs to be cleaned before it can go to the women's center that assists people looking for work/needing to learn job skills. Or it's some lovely vintage something, or some funky custom club outfit, that I can't bear to just toss in the Goodwill pile, but haven't got anyone to give it to, and can't be bothered to find a good way to sell. Or it's a box full of notes my dad sent me when he was traveling, or drawings my mom made on my lunch bags, or letter my sister sent me from college or to law school. Or it's the dolls I made during that really terrible year in the early 90's. Trashing those things feels like killing people I love.

So, I have mounds of things that won't mean anything to anyone ten minutes after I'm dead and will instead burden some well-meaning person or distant relative. But I can't bring myself to really divest myself of them.

Dog nails are the WORST, msali! The blood I have shed trying to do it myself. Now I take her to the vet and they muzzle her and do it. I can hear her from the lobby in the back room screaming like she's being murdered.

I am doing it today! My ridiculously tiny kitchen needs to be reorganized, but it's a big honking deal. I'll need to take everything off the wobbly wheelie cart and off the tall free-standing shelves and haul them to another room so I can clean and move things around.

But! I am about one hour into the actual work! I'm in my grubby clothes, I took medication pre-emptively, and I've put "Twin Peaks" on in the background for entertainment. This should be a decent day's work, so by tonight, I'll be feeling proud!

There are other things I have been putting off, sure, but this is the one I happened to be doing when I took a break and saw this thread.

msali, I sympathize with your nail duty! It's such an easy thing to put off, and I'm impressed you even do them yourself. (My mother, incapacitated by an injury, recently asked me if I could do her cat's claws for her. Though I've unhesitatingly said "Yes!" to everything else she's asked, I unhesitatingly said "Nope" to this one. This is a task I will not do. I'm taking the cat to the vet Friday, and they'll do the nails along with the check-up.)

Oh, Thorzdad, that intertwined family-duty stuff is the worst, especially when the situation is so complicated already. I'm so sorry you're having to deal with it, and it's no surprise if you find yourself putting it off.

A few years ago, I had a little realization. My lawyer made a crack about everyone hating lawyers, and I realized, "You see us at our worst and at our most vulnerable, and lots of people must resent that and fear it." He looked like he was going to hug me.

At this very moment I should be calling for an endoscopy appointment to have my gall bladder checked. As you can see I'm right on that.

thorzad, that sounds rough. Work in baby steps. Good luck to you and your mom.

I have so many things to do. I need a mammogram. I need a skin check. My dog needs a checkup and a teeth cleaning. My kitchen needs repainting. A bedroom needs repainting. The roses need fertilizer and light pruning. The front door needs repainting. The garage needs organizing. I need to check my continuing education credits to see if I am lacking. My kids are going to have their own bedroom and I need to start moving furniture. I've been saying I would make their own bedroom for months.

Work in baby steps.

This works for me, too. The best advice I ever got was from my then-boyfriend (now-husband): "Don't think about the big thing, just break it down into the littlest steps and do them. What do you have to do today?" I still think that every day.

And I've learned to allow myself to build breaks into any onerous task, if I want. (That's what I'm doing right now!) Sometimes putting my head down and plowing through works better, but sometimes I just need to know it's okay to take some time away from it.

Where to start?

The house needs all sorts of stuff done to it. Some we could do money-wise (painting) but current health issues preclude it. Other things need more money (flooring) and will have to wait.

I really need to deal with my clothing. Get it sorted, bagged up and off to a thrift store or wherever.

I have a mammogram reminder sitting next to me that tells me I'm a year over-due.

Re: dog nails. We tried to do Kaylee's at home and there's no way; she's so sensitive about her paws. The mister takes her to the vet monthly to get them done.


(((Thorzdad)))

Lots of health stuff. Gynecologist, colonoscopy, mammogram, blood pressure check, funny skin patches, my possible pupik hernia.

I think I'll just wait until something falls off.

I feel like we could make this all happen if we each traded a task. For example, I would be happy to empty Leesh's dustbuster (I like bugs) and terrorize Thorzdad's brother (I like being mean to the deserving) if someone would please plant the hostas I bought 3 months ago that are still languishing in the paper bag they came home in from the store.

I'll plant hostas if someone will paint my house.

I'll happily plant the hostas. Who's going to shop for a just- right size rug for our porch?

I'll shop for a rug if someone will caulk this one section of my door and clean out the small area of dry leaves by the door, from which often emanates a rustling sound that scares me. (What's IN there??)

My last two mammogram referrals expired. I wonder if we should set up a system where we make appointments for one another and call the cabs to drive us to the clinics.

So very many things that it overwhelms me. I guess putting 1 more coat on the wood counters is the 1st. Cause all the stuff from the kitchen counters is on the table and chairs. for the last month and a half. But I got a small garden planted.

{{{Thorzdad }}}