Life Cycles

Coffee in the Los Angeles skyline mug, dog sneezes for music. Do you ever wake up and just know that today is going to be the day that you get everything done? I woke this morning at 6:30 and I just knew that I'd get the ad for the Glass Expo brochure in today, and I'd get my application for the Decatur Arts Festival in, I'd sign all the rest of the big order pieces so Stacy could box and ship them, I'd sign and ship all the book orders, I'd fuse a big window commission (or slump a big AI order--one or the other), and I 'd finally format and send the supplies list to the publisher. I would--will--do all that. And I'll raise hell with the pet insurance company for the way they handled Jester's claim, and I'll pick Jessie up from school at 1:00, and I'll wrangle the alarm company technician (again)... Was I dreaming? Did I become a superhero in my sleep? We'll see.

I am finding that everything has a life cycle. It may not be the life cycle you expect going into whatever it is, but it has--independent of you and your expectations--a life cycle. When whatever it is is done you can look back and just know that however long it took was its actual life cycle. For example, you get an assignment on Friday and it's due the next Thursday so you think it has a one week life cycle, but you don't actually get it done till the following Tuesday so its real life cycle is 12 days.

Clearly, the problems I am having with tasks, schedules, juggling, etc., can all be laid at the door of incorrect life cycle assessment. And today I just feel the end of the life cycles of many things has arrived. How does it all work out? I don't know. It's a mystery. Now off to design, apply, sign, organize, wrangle and ship. Oh yeah, and fire too. This is a glass studio, after all.