Where’s PJ been?
There’s a whole lot of Life going on, and there’s nothing like a particularly O.O moment to help you prioritize your To Do list.
I’ve been deep in the day job, traveling Mon – Thurs every week plus working Fridays remotely for quite some time now, immersed in the most challenging project I’ve ever undertaken both in terms of technical requirement and the application of my people skills. It’s stressful, somewhat anxiety-inducing, and yet engaging and stimulating and well…I love my day job.
I’ve also been re-balancing the routine in order to get my writing productivity back up to a good pace so that I can meet the deadlines for Piper J. Drake‘s upcoming new romantic suspense series with Carina Press. Also stressful, somewhat anxiety-inducing, yet incredibly fun and creative.
So I was in transit from the mid-west to the east coast late Thursday night, pondering my weekend To Do lists for both these careers when the PJ Daddy texted me:
How are you? Guest what, we are sitting here waiting for night angel blooming. Start opening now
* Some explanation: I gave PJ Daddy a Queen of the Night night-blooming cactus some years ago. He’s been trying to catch the flowers blooming all summer but so far, he’s always been away when they bloomed.
I was thinking, Oh! How nice. He gets to see it this time.
Then PJ Daddy texts me this:
By the way, did you know thSt your sister had an accident, broken her leg
DADDY. Your prioritization. It is NOT RIGHT.
Lead with the broken limbs, my friends. There is no good segue.
My lists for either career were immediately tossed aside and I set about finding out what actually happened, where my sister was at the moment, and what I could do to help. This included notifying my little brother in Colorado and my mother in Thailand, because, well, that hadn’t happened yet. Oy.
There was no sleep Thursday night. There was some day job on Friday but I confess to multi-tasking family stuff as my little sister went through surgery that morning.
The actual situation? She missed a step going down a small set of stairs and fell. Broke her leg in two places and dislocated the ankle on the same leg. She came through surgery like a champ and is now heavier a metal plate and a half dozen screws. Otherwise, she’s fine and the family is rallying to help her out as she recovers, especially with my 7 mo old nephew. I think he’s 7 months. Maybe 8 months.
In any case, I came away with a newly simplified perspective. All it takes is missing one step, and you end up looking at the world from a completely different angle.
