Lazing away

The "lazy" in the name of my blog raised some questions among my colleagues. They were used to see an Efficient and Active Laura, so Lazy Laura didn't fit in the picture. I explained that my laziness is selective, and reminded them about some details which had revealed this. For example, when I got a new dry erase board at work, I immediately started to use it without mounting it properly; I simply balanced it on the top of some binders that I never used. It took about 6 months to mount it on the wall, and it was done by my colleagues as a surprise to me. It looked beautiful on the wall, I must say!

I also often mask my selective laziness under an excuse "this will do for now, I have some other priorities first". My husband can definitely attest to this, since I have created several makeshifts at home, and we both now it will take a while before the real solution will be in place. For example, in June I bought a beautiful Marimekko canvas, which I wanted to hang on the wall. So I did, the same day: a big piece of a cardboard, clothing pins and an old hook on the wall did the job. When our friend visited us later that week, he admired the temporary solution, and then carefully asked when I will fix it properly. "Probably not in 2012", my husband answered on my behalf. Well, he was right - the canvas is still hanging on a makeshift, version II. The first version collapsed a couple of months ago, so I had to craft a new, improved makeshift. It was not yet the right time to make the real frame for it.

I state in the blog introduction that my mom calls me lazy. It was the case especially during my teenage years. At that time I was always reading, and my answer to her requests of "take the garbage out", "clean the table", or something along these lines was always: "yes, soon". Well, her "soon" was sooner than mine. Sometimes - I guess quite often - she run out of patience with me, and she would do what she had asked me to do.

Now, when I'm again living with her for these three weeks, I try to behave better, like a responsible adult daughter. I try to be more proactive and reactive and help her in the everyday chores. However, the problem is her speed: she is so fast in whatever she does, and her patience is about 5 seconds short. I know that if I don't react within those seconds, the chore is already done before I get to it. Unfortunately I've noticed how tempting and easy it is to slip back to my teenage answer of "yes, soon .. " and just laze away.