Correspondence

As I think about tweaking the schedule and the schoolwork for the next term, I am once again looking for a way to schedule in correspondence, cards and phone calls. Laugh if you must, but I have a very hard time figuring out when to do these things. When I think of so-and-so who would enjoy a card, either I am not in a position to address and mail one, or I don't have stamps, or I don't have a card. We live fifteen to twenty minutes from any shopping, so I have to plan my purchases around when I will be in town.

Also, phone calls. I really have a hard time with these. I hate telling people I have to get off the phone. I do not want them to think I don't want to talk to them. So I just don't call anybody. Doesn't that make a lot of sense? Wouldn't it be better to call and say, "I have a few minutes," and let the person know when you have to move on with your day? I would rather be slow and leisurely and make sure each of us gets to say everything we think we need to say. But then I find that an hour has passed and I have to leave tasks undone until the next day.

And I really like sending and receiving emails, but I can't just send a short reply. I want to really send a good email, so often I put off replying until I forget that the email is still outstanding and it gets lost in the shuffle of subsequent emails. (We get a lot of emails.)

I think this must just be a hard area for lots of women-- we want so much to be connected, and yet we have so many things going on in our lives-- things that don't even have directly to do with us a lot of the time-- that we ache for more connection, but at the same time do not want to flake out on our commitments.