C is for Controlled Chaos

Isn't "Controlled Chaos" an oxymoron?  I need to look into that...later.  In my free time.

For the last 8 days, I've been simultaneously trying to:
1. Plan for a last minute trip to L.A.
I mentioned this a little bit last week, but I'm not going to go into detail as I don't know whether anything I say is against the rules.  We'll just say that when we're not doing what we're actually there for, The Girl and I will be touring the sites in Hollywood. 

2. Plan for a planned trip to Roseburg, OR.
This is an annual trip that my husband's family has taken since about 1969.  We have all kinds of shooting events where you can win a hokey trophy.  We have an Easter egg hunt, even if there are only adults there to participate.  My Father-in-Law, his best friend Sam, and Calvin's Uncle Biggee are some of the best and they are all in their 70's.  Except Sam, who passed away two years ago from a non-Easter egg related illness.

We all look forward to this trip every year and The Brown Eyed Man and I haven't been able to go for the last two years because he had neck surgery one year and his gall bladder removed the next. 

3. Clean and prepare our Fifth-wheel for the previously mentioned trip to Roseburg.
My planning and packing took a turn for the worse on Saturday when I discovered a leak in one of the slides on our trailer.  Plus, I had planned to use this week to get some food made and some packing done and that plan was thrown out the window when the L.A. trip came up.

4. Help The Boy deal with some major life changes and learn how to deal with major life mistakes. 
He's made a few large mistakes lately.  I think my parents are saints.  If I were anything like The Boy I don't know how they kept from smacking me.  I must be a saint too because, so far, I've held back.  I've gone through a range of emotions with this kid lately: I want to help him, I want to punch him, I want to hug him, I want to make him move back in with us, I want him to move to North Dakota, I want him to have a a girlfriend, I don't want him to have a girlfriend. 

I am baffled daily by how The Boy gets through life.  All I can do is be here for support and try to give good advice.  My Dad tells me to stay out of the relationship stuff (the girlfriend), and I really want to but The Boy wants to tell me about it and I can't help being involved. 

5. Prepare a program for an annual event that needs to be at the printers by the end of this week.

I've done this every year for 6 years now and I still put it off to the last minute every time.  This was another thing I planned to work on this week but it got bumped by the L.A. trip.  Have I mentioned I'm going to L.A.?  Seems like I say it too much.

6. Help make arrangements for a different annual event that needs to send it's program to the printer one week later than mine.

This event is much more of a group effort.  There are ten people on our board who are there to help put on this event.  Naturally, this means that three of us do most of the work.  There are myriad small details to settle up and my list is getting smaller, but it still feels overwhelming when I look at it.

My friend Berneice wonders how I do it all and I really have no idea.  It's just what you do,