Time-Play-Jamie

I haven’t had an abundance of time lately. Because of this dearth I had to balance the most “important” things into my busy schedule. On the balance sheet were first-work, second-church, third-relationships, fourth-play and fifth-survival needs. It is sad that my survival needs to clean, cook, go to the bank, shower and do laundry were put on the bottom of my list. I am blessed to have Liz around because she took care of the cleaning of apt#6 and would sometimes even cook my meals for me. I also did not have the time to put my thoughts into words on the blog so today, on a rainy Sunday I am going to try to post my dilemmas and solutions to the time crisis of Spring 2009.
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I’ll start with the last on my list, but the most fun to do: PLAY. Of course I had my goal of riding my bike in the half century (see Liz’s post) and that was tres fun! I loved riding along the green hills of the Santa Ynez Valley for my first big ride. The ride was less stress for me because I grew up among those hills and I could take the anxiety out of riding because I was comfortable with my surroundings. The other areas of play that I want to do, but don’t always have time to do, remain a passion of mine. I try to walk to the beach with Liz. I try to get to the farmers market to buy fresh produce at way cheap prices. I also try to do yoga in the morning. My only problem with these fun things is that they have to occur in the wee hours of the morning (5am yoga-while doing a load of laundry that Liz has to take out of the dryer for me when I go to work at 6:45am). I tried to take my bike on a ride after work on Thursday but when I got myself all ready in my bike shorts and told the janitor that I was going on a ride (I try to be safe by telling someone at work when I’ve gone on a ride so they know to go looking for me on the river trail if I don’t come back) but when I got my bike out of my car I had punctured the tube somehow (in the back seat of my car) and I couldn’t ride. I was so crestfallen that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy time outside because I knew when I got home I wouldn’t have time to exercise and cook food and help the cub scouts set up for their fundraiser while also doing an assignment for my new teacher certification course. This is just one example of the time dilemmas I’ve been having lately. Last night I did play and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I went to a choral concert to listen to Bronson sing (with the Orange County Mormon Choir) and spent time with Rosa, Michael/Jessica and other new/old friends. Michael and Jessica were married two weeks ago after their yearlong courtship, which began through online dating. There was one other couple there married last June who also met through online dating. I mention this because part of my playtime should be concentrated on dating and/or other events that would be related to the dating scheme. I did sign up for online dating as part of my New Years Resolutions. The subscription I have will expire next week and I have chosen not to renew it. The advantages of online browsing for a mate are many but for my personality and lifestyle the compatible matches are not a) interested in me or b) viable options due or distance or religion. At this moment my play is paramount of my balanced emotions, but as you will read further the playtime is always surpassed by my responsibilities in the work and church areas of life. When I get back from church I should have more to write about my church responsibilities as I plan to ask my bishop to release me from one of my five callings.