delays

It’s inevitable. Nothing in life is ever always on-time.

Except for God.

But let’s keep it light.

Light traffic. A line at the gas pump. Extreme wind chill factors. (That might fall under the “God exception” too, since weather is an act of God, but we’ll get back to that later.) The oven wasn’t as hot as you thought it was and those cookies haven’t browned around the edges yet. Or in my case, delays due to minor insecurities and/or unpreparedness.

This is why it takes me so long to record and produce the new podcast. (Along with my unorthodox method of clipped recordings.) This is why you haven’t seen any new vlogs yet. And this is also why some of my lists, like my Oscar predictions were posted just the day before the event instead of much earlier. Actually, the plan was to make a video version of my predictions, but it took me so long to make my predictions that I had no time to set up a camera. Yet I managed to turn on a microphone. And I also have a list of my top albums of 2014. That will still come out. So what if we’re 3 months into 2015, last year still happened and was a great year for music!

I wanted conditions to be perfect when I record, similar to a studio atmosphere, but without the studio, which kinda was the point. I have an idea for how I’d like my new videos to be recorded, but it’s been overall inconvenient for me to set that up the last couple week. My first video was going to come out after my birthday, thanking everyone for the well wishes. I recorded it twice, but… eh… I’m my own worst critic. I often get in my own way.

Another delay I’d like to mention which was new to me this year, although I didn’t really get to take advantage of it but this winter has been so cold that schools have been delayed, maybe even closed, due to wind chill. Wind chills! I admit, it’s been pretty brutal with temperatures starting at 0 and then a gentle breeze will result in no longer having a face. But as a youth, I’ve never had a school delay due to temperatures. Maybe, perhaps, because it’s never been that cold before around these parts. Even if it was, we school children never got a late start out of the deal. Just extra scarves and a few more layers of clothes to peel off once we got to school.

That doesn’t really have anything to do with me not following through on my projects.

But delays are inevitable, as I stated before. I had planned to do so much by now and either had a late start or didn’t start at all. Speaking of the weather, I even had a couple snow days in my favor and I still wasn’t able to get ahead! But I know I can do better. All too often I’ve let one of my favorite mantras keep me from sticking to my own schedules, even if it’s true: “Life happens.” And it does. Babies born. Old people die. Friends invite for food. Family invites for food. Things just happen in life that delay or even cancel plans.

I wanted to make a decree that I won’t allow delays to stop my progress anymore, but that’s impossible. I still won’t go outside if it’s too cold. But what I can declare is I will be ambitiously determined to make my personal deadlines by any means necessary. Don’t be late Spring.