Tomorrow is Another Day

My not-so-little teenage niece texts me today. It's curious because when I saw her up in Scotland two weeks ago, she barely said a word to me; skulking morosely behind a curtain of dyed black hair and never unplugging herself from her iPod. Now she is sending me texts saying "I love you" and ending "xoxoxoxoxox".

Obviously it is easier for her to put things in writing than to say them. And I suppose that counts for most people, including myself.

Because today I have lunch with Lynn - fellow public sector employee with many similarly Stepford characteristics ie the ability to look attractive and say one thing, while thinking another thing entirely. And like myself, she is currently undergoing a number of - ahem - challenges to this persona because (also like me) she is managed by An Insecure Egotist! A lethal combination.

I enjoy ninety minutes in Lynn's company and I would estimate that at least 50% of this is spent  laughing. On parting, we vow to do it again and SOON. But I don't actually tell her how much I like her. Instead, later than day, I edit her contact details on my mobile phone, by changing her name from "Lynn Black" to "Lynn Inner Circle" (the tweak I give to the names of people I feel totally safe with).

Once back in my office, I text a couple of other friends, and then take a call from someone asking me to go into prison to give a talk. Weird! I had a call only this morning, from someone asking me to go into the other prison in our region. My phone rings again - it is my young friend Frances who is meeting me later for coffee, and then coming to a Support Group meeting with me. And then there is the ongoing text chat with my niece...

All this takes up some time, and leaves me with about an hour to do a long list of work tasks. Yikes ! Now I am no longer a hopeless, pitiful workaholic; the requirements of my paid employment have dropped so far down my list of priorities that they have almost fallen off it. Which I believe is the way to get handed one's P45.

So I beaver away industriously, but despite my end-of-day efforts, I fail to get round to the one task I meant to complete. The one which has been on my to-do list for - oh dear - over a week now.

Oh well.
The sky hasn't fallen in.
And there's always tomorrow...