Well, I'm not really sure why I didn't start this project earlier, like about three months ago when I learned how to burn mix CDs. Now I'm frantically recording every song I ever liked, just for the three and a half hour drive to Shasta Lake Tuesday morning. And I'm doing it between and amongst all the other things I'm trying to do to get ready. But I seem to have more energy for music than I do for paperwork.

If I'd given myself more time for this, I'd be doing theme CDs and cleverly letting one song lead into another. I'd put the Bob Dylan and Sheryl Crow versions of Mississippi back to back. I'd stick Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls and Closer to Free by the Bo-Deans together. Or how about 29 Palms by Robert Plant, 32 Flavors by Alana Davis, and 49 Bye-Byes by Crosby, Stills & Nash? How about that?

Am I a frustrated DJ or what? There are no radio stations that would allow me to be their music director, that's for sure. I'd be sacrificing quality for cleverness like a hack movie director.

It's not as if I don't have a million other things to do. This business of getting ready to go away for a week carries its own kind of stresses. This was supposed to be a Saturday, but it turned out to be a kind of a Tuesday or Wednesday. I think tomorrow will be about the same, but I don't have time for a Monday. My Monday is going to be chock full o' last-minutes nuts I need to crack.

I decided early today that I wouldn't be leaving the house. I had next week's payroll to do, blessedly early, and a few other odds and ends to pick up from this past week. I had a ballgame to watch while I was working, so why not? Besides, I could spend any down time watching the live Big Brother feed. (I'm quite content to be stuck in my house alone, instead of in that house with those thirteen people.)

It was a little harder than I thought it would be to keep at it all day. Part of it was the heat, which slowed me down. Some of it was just the fact that it was a Saturday, and I was thinking about doing almost anything but working. But most of it was that in three days I'm going to be on a houseboat in the middle of Shasta Lake. That makes it hard to concentrate on IRS bills and job cost reports.

But at least I got some work done. And I got to see the Giants beat the Diamondbacks (again). And I got to watch Cute Nathan and Cute Alison in the Big Brother house lying in bed together, doing something I don't usually see on television. (She was flirting while he was reading the Bible. Which, come to think of it, might have been his way of flirting.)

Even with all this going on, I kept thinking about other things I should be doing. Laundry. Umm...okay, maybe just laundry. Or maybe I'm just not thinking about everything I should be thinking about, because I'm sure there must be more than that.

I've ended up with three new mix CDs (so far) for the drive. They make no esthetic sense and the songs bear no relation to each other. But if I put as much effort and time into my actual job (as well as getting ready to leave), I'd be miles ahead of the game. Just goes to show you. Something.