Time Suckers

The older I get, the less patience I have for those who I feel are wasting my time.  Perhaps it's also the added confidence that age gives you that has finally allowed me to speak my mind on things that needlessly suck my time away into useless oblivion.  Here are some examples of recent things that I consider time suckers:

*WHY OH WHY must there be 3 sessions of Stake Conference?  The adult session, general session, and leadership session.  If I am going to have a date night with my husband, I am certainly not going to waste it on listening to stake speakers who will reiterate the same things in the general session the next day.  If the topic is really that important, you should be able to say it all in the 2 hour session on Sunday and not need the 6 hours that is allotted. Usually I am a good girl and attend Stake Conference, which always seems to fall during the youngest child's naptime and thus we spend the entire 2 hours walking laps around the building.  So yesterday, which was Stake Conference for us, we decided to take the kids instead to Temple Square and visit both visitor's centers.  What could make a Sunday better than seeing the "Christus" statue, walking around the temple, and viewing all of the movies and artwork they have there?  It was sooo much more enjoyable and beneficial for us than attending SC.  There.  I said it.

*Meetings for the sake of having a meeting.  I could go on and on about this one.  It could be a meeting that is job related, volunteer related, or church related.  In order to have a meeting that is not a waste of time, an agenda must be planned by the leader.  I don't want to leave my family and show up to a meeting where there is no central purpose and shoot the breeze with people that I normally wouldn't have anything to do with.  These days, most communication can take place through email or telephone calls and a meeting doesn't need to take place.  And also, no meeting needs to last longer than an hour!!!  For the love of Pete, if you must tear everyone away from their homes, the leader should control the meeting and have it end within an hour.

*Visiting teachers and home teachers.  Oh boy.  Our last visit with our home teachers was absolutely painful.  I honestly felt it was a sacrifice on my part just to allow them in and so when he insisted on dragging the conversation on and on as my kids pelted each other and ran circles around the room, I wanted to scream!  Literally, he kept saying, "Anything else going on?  Anything?"  as Robert and I just sat there blinking in silence scrounging to come up with any tidbit of information on what we were up to to fill the awkward silences.  Give the message, and then LEAVE!  Same things goes for visiting teachers.  It took me a good 12 years before I had the confidence to say, "I will only be needing a visit every other month.  You are welcome to call to see how I am doing or bring by a present (haha) on the other months."  It's so much nicer to feel in control!  Afterall, they are supposed to be addressing my needs and my needs are LESS VISITING TEACHERS!  And I am actually happy to see them on an every other month basis.

*People who love the sound of their own voice.  These people believe that whatever could be said in 2 sentences, is even better when dragged out to 5 or ten minutes.  We all know people like this.  Their name pops up on the caller ID and you quickly yell to your kids, "Nobody pick it up!"  Why are there so many people completely out of touch with social cues?!  In our ward, we have a dear soul who takes it upon himself on fast and testimony day to walk up to the front to bare his testimony in order to put some pressure on the person that is already up there and just won't quit! You know the type:  usually a woman who feels the need to get up EVERY fast Sunday to relay her latest revelation and/or trip details.  It's so funny because him getting up to gently tap the show of the precocious teenager who is giving waaaay too many family secrets away is just like clock work every fast Sunday!  What a great service he is rendering by rescuing us every month from the few people in our ward with no sense of appropriateness.

Here are some pictures from our VERY enjoyable Sunday playing hooky from Stake Conference:
(And don't worry--I'll be a good girl and be back at the next Stake Conference)

And a family outing wouldn't be a family outing without someone
having a temper tantrum.

**And here's a shout out for Robert's new and amazing blog.  Check it out!  www.drflynndmd.blogspot.com