Thus if anyone who holds that opinion of me happens upon this blog, please know that I am only an occasionally unreliable flake...
Chalk it up to what I call the Newton-Murphy's Law to the Third Power, of which I am a perpetual victim. In the BBW universe, whenever there is a day when things fall exactly into place, there are two days when everthing falls apart. And it tends to be invoked when I can least afford to have things go awry.
Last Thursday, I succeeded in securing my trade name and registering my business without getting a parking ticket (which is no small feat in DC these days). Then I got my new business cards in the mail, opened my new bank account, and got free mailing supplies from the Post Office. I managed to get some work done for some clients, made it to dance rehearsal, and finished the evening with dinner and a couple of beers at a quirky Irish-Jewish bar. It was a very productive day!
Then came Friday and I was running an hour late for everything. Because I knew that the day ahead of me would take me out of the office, I tried to cram as many emails and phone calls as I could into two hours, which did not work, so I was late to the studio to assist with set-up for the recital. Then I was late to my brother's house for my baby-sitting duties with the Baby Niece. And though I got up extra early on Saturday morning and had every intention of leaving the house early to meet my team, I did not make it because I could not find something that I really needed for later in the day and thus, I suffered one of my classic melt-downs (kind of like this one).
I texted a few folks to let them know not to wait for me, and then resigned myself to a morning of pouting it out in bed. But I was still hot-wired and intent on finding my missing item, so after another 30 minutes of fruitless searching, I determined that I had to make some serious choices about how the rest of my day would unfold. Either I could continue to tear my house apart and never find what I was looking for, which would put me in an extra foul mood for my recital or I could go down to the Komen Race to honor my commitment to participate in the Walk, and then go on with the rest of my day as planned.
I chose to ignore the Newton-Murphy's Law to the Third Power and I am happy to report that my day and my outlook on things improved tremendously.
Now, there are several lessons here: just say no because you cannot accommodate everyone; double-check before the last minute; be more flexible when stuff happens; and perhaps, most importantly, clean up this &$# house(!)...but the real lesson is to just keep dancing. This metaphor applies to performing on the stage as well as it does to life in general.
No matter how much one rehearses, there is always the possibility that there will be some type of glitch--a missed cue, a wrong step, wardrobe malfunction, but the key is to keep dancing. The audience will applaud your performance anyway. Similarly, in life there will be glitches despite the best made plans. I know what my intentions were, and the fact that I missed my team was just an unfortunate glitch. Ultimately, I promised to participate in the Walk, so even if I had to go it alone, it was important to stop fixating on the lost item and to just keep on dancing. (PS: I was the last person to start, but I caught up with the late stragglers and was able to finish 3 miles in an hour. Yay me!)
In this case, the applauding audience was the BBW universe deciding to ignore the Newton-Murphy's Law to the Third Power. The rest of the day was not a complete disaster and neither was the following day when I hit the road for a day trip to Philadelphia (for the BBW show must always go on).
And for good measure this week is off to a decent start--yesterday I showed up to court half an hour early!
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