When the going gets tough, the tough make lists

[andygates]

There's only one way to handle pre-race stress: lists.  The act of listing stuff is soothing, it puts the future into nice tidy rails and gives me something to do right now that doesn't involve drumming my boot against the underside of the laptop until the screen falls out.  So lists it is, and for tri, that's nicely nested.  You get the two main lists: RACE and STUFF.  Now, RACE breaks down easily into SWIM (swimmies, goggles, etc), BIKE (bike, helmet, racebelt, pump, workstand, toolbox #1...) and RUN (run shoes, gel?) plus STUFF (race pack, bodyglide, towel, first-aid kit...).  STUFF, meanwhile, can be broken down into SURF (for 'tis a long weekend in the southwest: board and wettie and wax and "dude!" expression), TOYS (fire and geek, book, strawberry lubricant, music), WEEKEND (the usual crap for a weekend anywhere, clothes and beer and so on), ZOMBIES (machete, trail food, full tank of derv, GPS for geocaches) and TO DO which, naturlich, breaks down into CAT, BEFORE YOU GO!!! and a list for each day of anything particularly startling but which I might otherwise forget in the frenzy of list-making.

The difference between my Capricorn lists and a Libra's lists is that a Libra would stick to 'em.  And they'd have a list of lists called LISTS.  And no ZOMBIES list either.

Comments

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Strawberry lubricant?

[andygates.livejournal.com]

I wondered if anyone would notice.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

It crossed your mind that I wouldn't?

[skean.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I noticed on LJ after the event and not, say, because I woke up on Saturday morning wondering what the lingering Strawberry fragrance around the place was ;-)

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Be very afraid :)

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Oh, and how do you like the mix?

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Golden Path and Sunscreen? You just know I'm grinning. Ta very much :)

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

There's also every track from BMX XXX I could get hold of. In order.

And Timbuk3! Yay for Timbuk3!

[n-decisive.livejournal.com]

The cat thanks you for remembering, but is tastefully ignoring the need for strawberry lubricant.

Hey- I don't ALWAYS stick to my lists! You're right though, about having a list of lists called LISTS. I'm embarrassed by it, frankly.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Pwned!

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

And they'd have a list of lists called LISTS.

My wife's a Libra. And, yeah. Just like that.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I'm a triple Sagittarius.

Actually, everything is in Sagittarius except one planet, and that's in Scorpio (that's as much as I remember from my one flirtation with a serious astrologist).

I make lists in my head. And only if they reach more than a certain number of items do I start writing them down. Once they're written down I usually end up ignoring them anyway because I'm always thinking of other things I need and deciding I won't need the original things after all.

I'm the sort of person who goes to the supermarket for bread, milk and cheese and comes back with some weird spice no one's ever heard of (just because I've never heard of it), three bars of peculiarly flavoured chocolate, a dozen sausages (because they looked so nice just sitting there all meaty and you know we haven't had sausages in ages), two bags of oranges, ice cream and a potted plant. I'll remember the bread milk and cheese but they'll be stuffed down at the bottom underneath all the cool stuff.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Last night I went to the shop for chicken pieces, some parsnips and some rum 'n' coke for Frood. I managed the parsnips. And the rum 'n' coke.

I also bought a pack of lamb chops, a bottle of white wine, two shiny black ashtrays (shiny and black and only 87p!), a lemon (I don't know why), a Ministry of Sound CD, and a bag of salad.