For #4

My littlest sister keeps checking back on my tired old blog and I keep disappointing her. She should know better, however. Our whole family has Chronic Focus Disorder - CFD (our kinder term for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a family that goes crazy together doesn't commit one another). Whatever task we have before us basically consumes us. I think that's how we made it across the ocean and then across the continent just to make it this far west "back in the day" before being in the far east once again . Like our forefathers (and mothers) we remain a very "focused" herd of people.

Our mother has been known to scrub out the bathtub tile, with a toothbrush, fifteen minutes before we were to leave for Christmas Eve dinner at our aunt's home. When we take on a new job the whole family usually takes a vote on it because if it is too "much" we will literally lose that person for a year or so. We vote to see if the job is worthy of the person they are getting and we are loosing. We are the dedicated worker who takes on all the tasks that everyone else has learned to say "No" to. We organize the place, pull it out of the red and put it into the black, negotiate and win over tough customers, all the while the household falls apart unless we've pulled in another family member to take over there (and change the perfect spot where the potholders go or else the universe will cease to exist as we know it).

Psychologically many have said it is because we are so egotistical we can't believe someone else will do as well as we will do (or secretly we are afraid they will). Others have said it is because we don't have control of any other area of our life so we micro-manage where we can. As someone with CFD I can state that while those things may be side effects what really drives me is a thirst to "know". I want to know if the plan of action I have set in motion will work. I want to know if my hypothesis is correct. But even more, I think the end result isn't half as important as the process in getting there and if I am not there to take part in the process I won't KNOW how it worked.

What we haven't learned is moderation. I think, of course, I am a little bit better than the generation before me (and a little bit better than my siblings, if truth be told). I would not, for instance, arrange a vacation cruise around my car's maintenance schedule. I'm just saying. However, just try serving my rice with a freaking silver serving spoon. I swear if one more of my kids does that I will bury that spoon where the sun does not shine (which around here is most any place). You work all day on a holiday meal and then they stick a silver serving spoon in the rice! Or use paper napkins with dinner! Now that's just plain disgusting and rude. Hahahaha!

When most of my siblings and cousins get together it is chaos. Fifteen micro-managers with their corresponding parent(s), fingers itching to "finish" the project at hand, with our own ideas of how it would make life so much easier for the world if done using "my" theories.

No wonder we no longer all live in one town! Not even Seattle could contain my cousins. My own siblings have had to spread out to different areas of the world, all of us on one continent is a little too much for those around us.

So, dear number four, as you may have guessed, I have started a new job and am "focused" and slightly neglectful. What's that? You have a new job, too? Oh! I do have a suggestion or two that will work perfect for you and if you don't use it, well, I think the world just might possibly end. Maybe.