Every once in a while I have a day (or week, or month) when my brain is so scattered I can’t keep anything straight. Too many thoughts and ideas and plans and wishes and fears and tasks and obligations all at once. It is at times like this that I resort to making lists. Sometimes, I even make a list of all the lists I need to make, or a list of all the lists I have made, indicating where each one is located and what its purpose is. Does this make me crazy?

Well, it probably goes without saying that today is one of those scattered days. I want to suck all the information in the world into my brain all at once, and settling on only one thing to think about or learn just isn’t acceptable.

Let me share with you some of the things that are bubbling around in my head right now.

First, I have checked out from the library, as usual, far more books than I could ever hope to read. It’s a sickness. But at least it keeps me from purchasing all those books and sending myself to the poorhouse. (Wait, I think I already am in the poor house, but that’s beside the point.) Here are just a few of the books currently littering my bed, floor, car, desk, and bookbag: Digital Designs for Scrapbooking, The Rough Guide to Ebay, 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly, The Little Capoeira Book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (book on CD format), and Quick and Healthy Cooking for Dummies.

Oh, but there’s more. Here are a few of the books I’ve put on hold at the library: 201 Icebreakers, Get Hired Fast, and The Dangerous Book for Boys.

Naturally, I’m currently reading a book that I didn’t even get from the library, but bought at Half Price Books many moons ago, and yesterday I decided to rescue it from my bookshelf of neglected books, which includes books about career tests, the advantages of being an introvert, boosting creativity, things to do in Seattle, and endless other topics.

There are 358 items on my list entitled “Big List of Things to Write About.”

My To-Do list is three pages long and includes everything from filling out my absentee ballot to learning how to use the edit features in Adobe Acrobat.

Oh, and there are about 700 ebooks I want to write. And I have 18 jobs in my stack of jobs to apply for. I’ve already applied for 10 this week, but I keep finding more!

Luckily, my actual paying (ha) job requires minimal thinking and effort, so I can zip through most of that work in drone mode.

So, here I sit. Writing about how many ideas and thoughts and plans I have, and yet still not making headway on any of them.

Oh, but I have succeeded in picking out most of the cashews from my Costco jug of Extra Fancy Mixed Nuts. At least there’s that.