And this is why I have a multiples problem...

There is nothing I was looking more forward to today (Wednesday) than getting in my scrapbook room. Other than putting class kits together, I haven't been in there creatively for over a month. I started with about an hour of getting the room in order. Then I put a couple of layouts on album pages and sorted others to figure out what albums they need to go in. For my family album, I needed a title page. I had the poem I wanted to use, but now I just needed a photo. I checked my "oversize photo" folders and came up empty. I decided I just need to print one.

When I found what I wanted, sized it and hit print, I got the message that the cyan ink cartridge is out. No problem, you will never find me without an extra ink cartridge. I always have at least two of every color on hand. Weeelllll, turns out, that the boxes that I thought were the cartridges, were only black ones. OMG! I definitely had an FTS moment. I give everyone a hard time about not having extra ink/paper on hand. It never runs out at a "good" time. It's always when you are in a hurry or need something right away. I can't say how many times my granddaughters call me to say they are emailing their homework for printing because their ink is out. There's nothing I hate more than an interruption to my carefully laid plans. "Barb, you need to be flexible"---you say. Well, that's not it. I work hard. I play hard---and that's the reward of my hard work---that I get to play at all. I'm very strict with myself. This was my play day. I pride myself in always being on top of things---annoyingly so---to family and friends, I'm sure. But you can always rely on me. I think it's that oldest child thing.

Just yesterday, Pam said she just can't figure out how I get all the stuff done that I do. Besides the fact that I move fast, I confessed that, really, I think I have A.D.D. I start something and before that's finished, I've flit to 25 other things. You've all seen those emails, you head to the mailbox to mail a letter, get side tracked and 4 hours later you realize you forgot to mail the letter. That's me exactly---except I get a ton of stuff done along the way.

Case in point: when faced with the ink situation today, I sat for a moment to revise my plan for the day. It's 10 a.m. I could continue in my scrapbook room, organize photos and plan a couple projects. Or, I noticed that when I went to pick the picture I wanted to print, this would be a good time to create my 2012 dvd of photos and get them off my computer. I started with that. I have 5000 photos on my computer. Probably 2000 of them are from 2012. I started scrolling through and trashing anything I know I would NEVER need again. In 20 minutes time, I discarded 1000 photos. Just saying--- I preach in my organizational classes about how quickly this can be done, I prove it to myself over and over again.

I stopped and did not finish with the photos right then because I realized if I waited much longer to get that ink cartridge, I would hit the heavy lunch traffic. On my way out the door, I remembered that I need to stop by the needlepoint shop and pay for a fiber that I took last night and forgot to pay for. That reminded me that I needed something else, so I went to my stitching supplies for the fiber card. I realized that I forgot to put my socks in the laundry room, so off I went. Once there, I thought, "well, I might as well run a load." Then I saw the folded napkins from Christmas and figured I might as well put those away. And on it goes. By the time I got out the door, I did hit all the traffic and had a hard time parking.

Now I'm ready for a nap.

Oh, and PS, Office Depot didn't have the cartridges individually, so I had to get another box. You can bet, I'll be ordering some individual color ones this afternoon. Right now, I have about 6 extra black cartridges. Really, I might have a multiples problem with ink too.