There are some, maybe many people who really thrive on doing administrative stuff, and more than thrive on it. They enjoy spending countless hours on the phone and the computer doing who knows what. I cast such people a wary eye because these individuals are often very controlling. They are friendly only because they need something from me. Furthermore, their linear ways of going about such things baffle me. I tend to go off on tangents – they think that is because I am attempting to do things differently and therefore am asserting myself in a way that makes me appear rebellious. Yes, this is really the way it is. If I had my druthers (whatever a druther is) I would build an appreciative component into their psyche.

Tyra

There can only be one administrator in my life, and Pete is it. He’s also the love of my life, which helps matters considerably. I could not do what I do without him. I sometimes get impatient because I have to curb my creative efforts in order to give him an assist with our combined or my individual administrativa efforts. Plain and simple – creative efforts of any kind result in administrative efforts. This is a given. For instance, a few minutes ago Pete said he wanted information from me for a riding instruction liability form. The poor guy has just spent two days of his spring break attempting to locate a suitable company for us to work with. I have to have insurance if I am to teach on the east coast.

Oh oh. Bummer. I wanted to work on this dispatch. I had to tell myself to be patient and stand there and provide him with the information. Talk about being self-centered. Maybe being self-centered also goes with being creative. Anyhow, I answered his questions, then on the way back up the stairs was full of self-gratitude. I am, have always been, convinced that he is going to dump me. I know for sure he could do better in terms of a partner. Imagine it, Pete living with someone else who had a more technical/administrative bent. They’d get things done and also have time for a vacation together.

I also get impatient when dealing with self-administrativa – today the word that describes my present state of being is mired. I’m working on June clinic stuff, sending individual emails to people – this is my approach, in hopes that I might get them to sign up for this clinic.

I’m also working on my east coast stuff – the niggly little details involved in the creativity workshop and the agility workshop. And (this is fun) attempting to locate an Icelandic horse to ride in the update clinic. Oh yeah, and I need to revise the goat poetry – can’t do this until I tend to the other things.

I have discovered that Post It notes do not work for me. My model was an individual who wrote things on these vile pieces of paper and had them on her desk, in order, in a checkerboard pattern. She could immediately find what she was looking for and then cross reference them. I was really impressed.

I have before me a mound of little squares of pink paper with inconsequential notes and doodles scrawled on them. I have to dig through the pile(s) and find the consequential stuff, which I of course didn’t write down beforehand. I think that as soon as I’m out of Post It notes that I am going to abandon this method of keeping track of things.

I am sticking with recording my administrative dotterings in notebooks.

As I said yesterday, writing dispatches is keeping me focused and sane.

It’s yet another blowsy day out there. I don’t know how much time I’m going to spend with the horses. Yesterday I fled administrativa land and went for a long walk with Tyra. It did both of us a lot of good. This sort of thing also keeps me sane.

The most daunting aspect of administrativa for me is this – when I take them on, all the given tasks seem like very high hurdles. I clamber over them. Then, after, when I look back, my having gotten over them seems inconsequential. Lists, lists, and more lists, they all seem passé. I feel the opposite about my creative endeavors. The truth hurts. Good thing that pain is an illusion.

Next: 74. 3/15/17: The Creative Life: A Conversation with Freebird