Monday, September 26, 2011

Chelsea the Type AB Panelist

Do you ever just marvel at how many amazing people you run into in this great big world...
We've moved more than the average bear, and every new location brings new friends and acquaintances. There's a few duds and rotten ones, of course, but it's overwhelming to me how many wonderful, awesome, inspiring people I have the blessing of crossing paths with. I can't emphasize that enough - it's just amazing to me. The world is full of beautiful people. It's too bad it's not possible to get to know even more of them!
[deep announcer's voice] That little reflection was brought to you today in part by the Salt Lake Mother of Twins Club. [end deep announcer's voice].
I've been attending a few activities with the SLMOT. All the moms there have been great, but I'm mostly amazed at the ones who volunteer so much time and energy in organizing it all! They've got TWINS (at least one set - some have more) and they're still givinggivinggiving to the world! People who do things like this, especially when there's absolutely no tangible benefit for themselves, are just super neato.
One of these SLMOT leaders, Kris, led a lovely evening entitled New and Expectant Parents of Twins Seminar. Kris asked me to be one of the Panelists. Obviously she didn't know me very well, otherwise she would've been aware of my relative incompetence and survival-by-sheer-luck history in the mothering twins department. But the event went fabulously and I think I managed to do what I do so well - fake it. I gave my two cents (or more like two dollars), answered questions, spoke up when I felt so inclined and kept my mouth shut when I needed to (but really didn't want to.... seems like that happens quite often to me...)
But the most eye-opening aspect of this evening was my personal epiphany - I'm not as Type A as I thought I was. In fact, I'd call myself Type B, except that really has a negative connotation  (laaaazzzyyy). And I'm not lazy. But I'm not half as prepared as those other panelists next to me were!
Middle panelist: Chelsea the unprepared. Bottom right: Bennett the wild runner's head (Brian had the joy of chasing around the munchkins during this seminar. And he honestly enjoyed it!)  There were about 40 in attendance. Kris did an amazing job leading it all!
Sheesh - they had NOTES! And HANDOUTS! And references in their notes! And SCHEDULES! They all talked about SCHEDULES!  Just that word makes me want to throw my watch out the window and run out into the woods in my pajamas and climb a tree. Not that I'm anti-scheduling/notes/preparedness..... I'm just so BAD at all of that! I've triiiieeedd to be more Type-A ish. It just doesn't work for me. It's like my right hand thumb-wrestling against my left.
Just thinking about making to-do lists gives me anxiety. Calendaring is so repressive. Meal planning is controlling. Meticulous preparedness measures in general are restrictive and soul-leeching.   I JUST WANNA LIVE IMPULSIVELY. Is that so unreasonable?!
Yes, I know it is. The world would cease to turn if we didn't have a bunch of Type-A's running it.
But yet.... as I said before, I've always thought I'm a little Type A....I do tend to be a multi-tasking ambitious freakishly compulsive competitor....
So I'm glad Wikipedia says there's a Type AB personality. Cuz otherwise I'd feel so lost, not being able to be categorized.... we all have the need to feel pigeon-holed, right?
Oh well. The bright side is that I may have a lower risk of coronary heart disease than the other panelists.

5 comments:

Marilyn said...

The reason you meet so many wonderful people is that you are one of them. You look at the world as a good place with good people who inhabit it.

Becky said...

Nice!

Becky said...

Nice!

debbieandstevefamily said...

Growing up, you were always ready to roll with either direction. You would choose to be the "life of the party" or do a 1000 piece puzzle by yourself. I think that is cool. Do you remember doing the needle in the haystack puzzle?

Megan Smith said...

I like Marilyn's comment here -- I agree with that about you. Life is fun and exciting for people who make it that way!