My shame tree

Ok, I confess, it's January 9, and we just took down the Christmas tree today. And all the decorations are still boxed up in my living room, not yet moved to the garage. And I probably wouldn't have finished it tonight, except my father-in-law is coming over for breakfast, and I didn't want one more person seeing my shame tree.

So perhaps 2011 isn't starting off with the big bang of motivation I hoped for. (Not that we should be surprised - this is ME we're talking about here.)

Here's my problem, blogland. My should-do/want-to-do list is long, really long, and I have a raging battle going on in my wee head: do I do the thing I should do, or the thing I want to do? Do I act like a responsible adult, or do I enjoy my life? Such a tough call. The top two things on my list are:

(1) SHOULD DO: Rewrite the article I wrote based on my doctoral dissertation. The original article I wrote was rejected (though nicely) by the first journal to which I sent it. Now I really need to revamp the whole thing and send it out to a different journal. The clock for this is ticking. I am planning on quitting my job this summer, and I really want to get this loose end tied up by then, so I'd need to get this sent in soon to get the ball rolling on the (potentially long and painful) publication process.

(2) WANT TO DO: Slip cover the chairs in my room. The upholstery is wrecked from when the dogs used to sleep on them, and also one dumb dog used one of the chairs as a chew toy...2 or 3 years ago. These are, akin to my shame tree, my shame chairs.

I KNOW the right answer is to get the article out of the way first. Buuuuut, I don't wanna. I just don't wanna. But ok, you've convinced me, dear readers (I can hear you saying, "Just do the damn article!" - especially you, Elena and Erin). I'll do the damn article. Sigh.

My ego can't afford to add a shame article to the pile.