March Madness

With Donna Hirner-Gardner at Legislative Conference

March marched onto my calendar with the purpose of seeing how sane I could remain in an insane world. The month began with a series of meetings. By Friday I was a little bedraggled and had driven to Jefferson City for the Business Women of Missouri legislative conference.

I arrived a little early and hiked from the parking garage to the capitol building to drop off an Alzheimer’s packet. Oops, I should have known everyone would leave early on a Friday, so that didn’t happen. I hiked back to my car and drove to the hotel by a circuitous route since I was coming in from another direction.

After I checked in and carried all my various bags to my room, I decided to relax with a cup of hot tea. I made the tea and opened one of those little packets with a napkin, creamer, sweetener and stir stick to get some sugar for the tea. The cup fell and the hot tea splattered all over me, but most of the tea spilled onto the floor.

I looked at the little napkin. That was not going to work. I dialed “O” and asked if they had anything I could use to clean up the tea. “Just use a towel,” he said, “and we’ll send you up a clean one.”

Relaxation? Who needs that? I spent my relaxing time cleaning up the mess. By the time I finished, it was time for my committee meeting.

Here it is the fifth of March and I’ve finally had a moment to sit down and fill out my wall calendar for the month.

Everything is on my phone, so my husband thinks this is an exercise in futility, but I like to be able to glance at the calendar and see what’s ahead instead of waiting for a “ding” that tells me I need to be somewhere else at the same exact time I hear it.

With the two-day legislative conference behind me, I filled out the remainder of the month. All I have to say is it is madness indeed. I have exactly four days in the entire month that doesn’t have one or more events or appointments. Madness! Or at least, what was I thinking?

I have several Alzheimer’s events lined up. Monday is my Alzheimer’s district meeting with Congresswoman Hartzler’s staff. Tuesday is the Alzheimer’s walk kick-off. I have two Alzheimer’s conference calls this week: Ambassador and combined work group. Later in the month is a day for corporate sponsors, but the biggie is at the end of the month when I’ll be going to the Alzheimer’s Advocacy Forum in D.C.

To see all the activities on the calendar is a reminder that when I do have free time I need to be editing, organizing my electronic files, paying bills, catching up on my to-do list, fulfilling promises…and all the other things that don’t make the calendar or the to-do list.

A lot of the events on my mad, mad, mad calendar are fun, and the ones that are business are spent with people whose company I enjoy. Often, I spend as much time laughing as working.

With March comes the promise of springtime—flowers, birds, bees, plants, greener grass. Oh, yes, grass. Mowing? I’ll think about that when the time comes.

Oh, come on. I know I’ll have time to read a book, pet the dog, and maybe take a nap from time to time. I’m going to guard those four free-and-clear days as if they were made of solid gold, because, actually, they are!

March may be madness, but April will be here before I know it. I just peeked at April’s calendar, and optimism aside, April is a popular conference month...

Copyright © March 2017 by L.S. Fisher

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