Epic Tangents – Episode One

You know that moment when you’re interrupted in the middle of doing something? Suppose you were wrapping a package to put in the mail. You’re almost done, but hey–where’s the tape? There’s the tape holder, but it’s empty. I know I had another pack of tape to refill it around here somewhere. You start off doing one thing; before you know it, you’re on a side quest to complete some other task. That is what I call an epic tangent.

And I just had one.

I began where I recalled having last touched this fabled pack of tape. There’s a bevy of boxes downstairs that are just sitting in the middle of what will soon be our family/multipurpose room. They are taking up space. About 75% of them are filled with “paper”. This paper is about eight years worth of procrastination.

The first tangent

But I digress (the paper story will have to be a whole other post)… so I head downstairs. I have to also add at this point that I wouldn’t have just left it lying around. I have to squirrel away things like tape, glue sticks, the “good” scissors, and permanent markers like they are hot commodities around here.

Unfortunately, no one else but me seems to think it is important that I have these items on hand when I need them. So I have to hide the extras so I can have something, like tape, on hand when I need it and not just when one of my kids wants to tape a bunch of paper on their wall and readjust it to the tune of a whole roll of scotch tape.

Another tangent

But again, I digress…. I look and look. I figure I can kill two birds with one stone and organize while I search for the tape.

Three hours later, I had filled two boxes of items to donate, two large garbage bags full of trash, one paper bag full of recycling, and one more large plastic bag of clothing for donation. But still no tape! Arrgghh!!

I just found the tape. It was in a box of office supplies on the shelf in the hall closet, about four steps from where I was assembling this package. Also, it happens to be the last place I looked.

One would think I would have checked there first, but somehow I did not remember about the box until after I had searched in my bedroom, my kids’ bedrooms, and my kitchen. Simultaneously organizing things as I went.

So I am sweaty, I have a sense of random accomplishment, and now I have to rush to finish with this package so I can get it to the post office before they close!

Until next time and another episode of Epic Tangents.