Time or Money?

Here's an interesting question for your consideration. If you were given the choice of one of the following every day for a year, which would you choose?

(a) An extra two hours of leisure time added onto every day. This time wouldn't subtract from any of your other activities (school/work, sleep, free time, etc.) but would be available to you for any purpose except additional work/school.

(b) An extra $30 added to your bank balance every day.

While I often find myself horribly short of discretionary cash, I still think I'd go for option (a), as it seems like I'm always hurrying through _____ because I know I need to _____.

All-too-often applicable example: "It seems like I'm always hurrying through dinner because I know I need to get to bed." So if both eating and sleeping are rushed, it goes without saying that the things I really love to do, the soul-building things like finishing an entire book in a day just because I couldn't put it down, have really fallen by the wayside. Multitasking only helps to a certain extent, and I've come up with some odd combinations. I do most of my leisure reading, for example, while drying my hair in the morning.

And I can't resort to the old standby of buying time because, with the exception of work, my presence is required for pretty much everything on my to-do list. Buying time doesn't work if your evening list consists of a 9-mile run, dinner, and 8 hours of sleep. Fortunately, I'm a faster runner than I was at this time last year, so that saves a certain amount of time...but not enough. Blogging is another one of those things I have to be present for, due to the super-specific, super-personal nature of the topic, but because it's not miles on the road, calories in my stomach, time in bed, or money in the bank, it often falls by the wayside. Disappointing, though, because I think I do this a lot better than I do any of that other stuff. Except probably the eating. And the sleeping.

At one point in my eclectic assortment of life experiences, I was a journalist, of sorts, so I know how to operate and write under the pressure of a deadline. I'm also rarely at a loss for ideas. But unfortunately, I'm also a raging perfectionist who doesn't really like to post half-baked or poorly-articulated thoughts. It's like my intestinal troubles on my run last Saturday - if I can't get it out when I have the opportunity to get it out, it just has to wait. (Evocative analogy, isn't it.)

This is my incredibly inept way of saying I haven't given up on this blog. It's been a month since I've posted, but an unbelievably busy and successful one, training and fundraising-wise. I had a little bit of stress from a personal problem I should have taken care of a long time ago, but thanks to help from Dad and a lot of patience from Brian, it's taken care of and I can stop feeling quite so irritated with myself and start moving forward again with a more positive outlook.

So here's to the road ahead. Thanks for your patience. :)