Conference Weekend Cinnamon Rolls

This is a picture of two of the two dozen cinnamon rolls I made tonight. I rarely make cinnamon rolls -- maybe once every three years -- because, like childbirth, I have to let my memory of my last experience with breadmaking pass before I am tempted to make bread again. (Breadmaking is extremely messy and time-consuming, and half the time the dough doesn't rise for me or something goes horribly wrong.)

So why did I make cinnamon rolls and why have I written TWO blog entries today? Because I have three newspaper stories due by noon on Monday which I have hardly started to work on. That's my M.O.

I tell myself I thrive under pressure, but I don't think that's really true. I am productive under pressure, but I do not thrive. I would like to break this habit of procrastination. I need to hire a personal coach to follow me around and keep me on task. (My personal coach would carry a clipboard and a stopwatch and he'd have a whistle between his lips, ready to blow.)

I first realized the gravity of my problem with procrastination when I was in college. On the first reading day of finals week my sophomore year, I went to the fabric store and bought a variety of fabrics to make a simple patchwork quilt...by hand. (I did not have a sewing maching at the time.) Back at my apartment, I cut the fabric into squares and arranged them on the ground, when my roommate, totally stressed about finals, asked, 'What are you doing? It's finals week!!!'

(Aside: I am pleased to report that I did eventually, a couple of years later, finish the quilt, and every stitch was sewn by hand. It was the first quilt Scott and I used after were married. I am not a really great 'finisher' of projects, either, generally speaking.)

So making cinnamon rolls and blogging -- those are stall tactics. Why am I stalling? I have no idea. But I do know that I will write the stories, and they will most likely be turned in on time. Meanwhile, we'll have cinnamon rolls to enjoy with the morning session of general conference and it will all be good.