Ode to procrastination

Procrastination has a bad rap. Some would say procrastinators are lazy. I say we're sparing ourselves undue stress. We know that the inevitable event, whether it's moving, a term paper, making that dreaded phone call, setting up that appointment, if it is lofty enough will eventually get done. As we all know, there are much more fun things in life to pursue to distract us like tv, games, reading a book, taking a hike and if you're desperate enough, even cleaning the toilets can look pretty appealing (accounting for the dread level of the thing that you're avoiding of course).


When the Peace Corps calls you to say, "How would you like to move directly to Morocco and not go to Senegal at all?" you know it's not a true inquiry of your personal preferences. And really, this wasn't a question at all, but a directive sent down by the higher-ups. The call came a week to the day before our move to Senegal, where we were supposed to spend a few months before moving to Morocco in late summer. I say "supposed" and if you've ever worked for a government agency you know why I used quotes. I can't go into the details on the urgency of the situation, that would require you to have a top secret security clearance and a super cool peace keeping decoder ring. So yada, yada, yada....Morocco here we come.


Thankfully I am a procrastinator. Did I bother to whittle away my time learning French? No. Did I research Dakar to find out the cultural hotspots? No. (I only researched whether the Black Mamba snake lives there which is the deadliest snake in the world. I saw it on the Discovery Channel and I'm now petrified we will encounter and be stalked by one.) We sent an air shipment ahead to Senegal which is supposed to arrive in a week. Yeah...right! I've moved to Germany and Hawaii and back and that shipment won't arrive for a month at least. So with this in mind, I waited til the last second and then threw a few shorts and t-shirts in a pile in the middle of the floor and voila....the movers came, packed it in 2 boxes and sent it to Senegal. Now that we're not going there, I'm sure that they will have a nice tour of the world. I don't expect to be reunited with them anytime soon and hopefully they end up being worn by a very nice family in Thailand or Papua New Guinea. No big loss. We are now in the midst of packing for the hotel and sea freight shipment. Both Senegal and Morocco are on the west coast, but Senegal is sunny and in the 70s and 80s this time of year and Morocco is 50s and 60s and rainy. They say Rabat is the Paris of Africa, but looking at the forecast it kinda looks it's the Seattle of Africa. So good thing I didn't pack! Out with the bikini and sandals and in with the coats and umbrellas.


Oh, I skipped the best part! We've been working our butts off to enroll the kids in school, obtain visas and passports. How can we move to Morocco now and possibly get this all done in less than a week? Crisis management has it's perks. Apparently all these things can get done in a week when you have the State Department helping you to get it done! Who knew right? We will get someone assigned to our family to "make things happen". I think this Happen Maker is my new best friend. Now someone else is responsible to stress about how we get there and we get to sit back, relax and enjoy happy hour at the hotel every night til we get on the plane. I was going to do that anyway. Shhhh...don't tell anyone.


So see kids, don't let your parents tell you procrastination is some big ugly monster. It can save you time, stress and maybe you can even clothe some needy families around the world in the process. Now I have time to google whether the Black Mamba snake is in Morocco or not.