an extra hour

i am in desperate need of some extra time.

seriously, folks... Desperate. with a capital d.

its been a super busy year (and it's only september... oh boy.) with weddings, work and family parties galore. not to mention remodeling parts of our house, birthday celebrations and just trying to keep up with life.

i must admit the keeping up with life part has been mildly neglected at times... i have dishes and laundry to prove it. you'd think that two people can't generate that many clothes or dishes in a week. but i just can't seem to catch up. i like to blame it on the fact that i'm at work for 9-10 hours everyday and then come home and make dinner. and then there's just not enough time. some nights i teach piano lessons. some nights we have plans to go out. but most nights, i'm just tired.

dead. beat. tired.

lame excuse? perhaps. blah, blah, everyone is busy... yeah i know. but seriously. i think i could enter a contest. and probably land in the top 5. depending on the time of year, maybe the top 3.

and i'm starting to realize that maybe i have a problem with being too eager at times. and maybe... i said maybe... overestimating my capabilities. regarding the first, as mentioned before, i really love helping people. a lot. i love feeling like i've done some good and accomplishing something. and even better when that accomplishment benefits someone else. so any chance i get, i jump (sometimes literally) to help. however, sometimes, i probably take on too much. i let my ego get the best of me and i am convinced that i can do it... because, why can't i? i don't like being told that i can't do something. so i try, and try. and sometimes try some more until i've aced the talent at an adequate, though not perfect, level of proficiency. so i stretch myself until i can't handle any more. and then i strech some more and take on more responsibilities. because i just can.

but enough of that. because what it boils down to is that i just don't have enought time to be good at everything. time...
time. time. time. time. time.

i just need a few more hours every day. just a few less hours that i need to sleep... which brings me to my nest tangent: in high school, i had insomnia. i survived with minimal sleep every night. sometimes i would get 2 hours of sleep. sometimes i would get less. on a really good night, i'd get 4 full hours of sleep. but i had so much energy and always felt productive. probably because i did so many things at night with the time most people spend sleeping. i would read - sometimes a whole book in one night. (cough cough harry potter cough cough) i would write songs, listen to talks, do homework, exercise - so many things. its amazing what you can do when you don't sleep. but i've found that the older i get, and maybe the more "grown up" i become, the more sleep i need. not get. need. i need to have 7-8 hours of sleep. my body just won't wake up until i've reached that minimum. i try to wake up... but it's just so hard. so i've resorted to going to bed early. earlier than i even had to be home for curfew in high school. and let me tell you - that's pretty early. i'm like an old woman. i have arithritis, i can tell when the weather is going to change by the ache in my joints, and i go to bed early.

i swear i'm only in my twenties. promise.

my point is, that i need just an extra hour or two. even 60 minutes that don't just fly on by.

sixty minutes.
there are so many things that can be done in sixty minutes.
one load of laundry from start to finish.
wash and dry and put away all the dishes from dinner.
an excellent cardio workout.
watching an episode of one of the following:

the west wing
psych
alias
house
fringe
arrested development
and a few others

reading a good portion of a great book
taking a walk

oh, the possibilities!

but alas... there are only 24 hours in a day. jack bauer has drilled that into our heads more times than one. seven, to be precise.

i digress. i need to figure out how to manage my time better. maybe that will make my busy schedule ... not... so... busy...?

who am i kidding?

still, i'm desperate for an extra hour...