I’m trying to figure out a lot about my life right now, while simultaneously just trying to live in the moment and accept it as it comes. Do you know how hard that is to do when you’ve diagnosed yourself as a Type A personality with a hint of Attention Deficit Disorder combined with this overwhelming desire to somehow make up for the last two years of my life being spent in oblivion?

I feel like the days are flying by and somehow at the end of them, I am getting things accomplished and yet I don’t seem to find any satisfaction in any of it – and then, of course, I start to wonder why. My Type A personality tells me I’m not doing enough, every moment spent in “down time” is precious time wasted that I could have been producing something, creating something else and thinking about doing even more. The realist in me tries to take a step back, relax and realize that while going out for Thai dinner with a friend, it’s completely okay that I’ve left my BlackBerry in the car. Completely okay.

What am I addicted to, I wonder. What is so important about receiving an email as soon as it arrives in my inbox at 8 pm? It’s not like I can really do much at that time until I get to a computer. I mean, I can – but it’ll usually involve an apologetic process to whomever I’m with about how it’s work and I can’t let it go. When the truth is, I can let it go, I just choose not to because I think I feel a certain sense of importance at the fact that I’m needed in a work capacity after regular business hours. How insane. Who even cares? If they care, the person/people I’m with, it’ll be that I’m being rude, not important! I know this, yet I check the message anyway.

I need a balance. And I wonder why this balance doesn’t come naturally to me. My birthday is October 1st – smack dab in the middle of the Libra, the astrological sign of balance. So why can’t I concentrate on doing one thing at a time? Loving one thing at a time? Experiencing one thing at a time? Can I control my life enough to create that? Is that something one can do – I can do?

I’m so addicted to being in the know. I need to be in the know. With news – local, national and world – with whatever social media site I’m viewing, technology, bestsellers, movies, music, sports and people. I’m left to wonder, am I tapping into my old high school self? The one who felt a constant need to fit in and therefore “love” everything so I always had something to talk about with a new face. I’m excited for knowledge, learning and education – but every day, with every piece of knowledge – I wonder where the hell it all goes!

Or … is it a reason for a lack of total productivity and procrastination?

I remember the days where Internet browsers only had one “tab” for each website you viewed. Remember those? You had one page, one browser. If you had more than one page, or three, or eight – you had that many Internet browsers open. I feel as though it really helped in terms of keeping things sane on the PC desktop. As soon as the computer started to drone and move like molasses between tasks, I knew something had to be done in terms of choice and what I really needed open on my operating system.

I think three to five browsers were my limit; depending on what research project I was working on at the time.

Now, as I’ve just gotten back from lunch to a lovely article about multitasking and the horrors of doing your job poorly – I look up and began to count the amount of “tabs” I currently have open in my Google Chrome browser and it stands at nine. Nine (now ten after my Tweet Deck informed me that Emily Brydon of Canada will be skiing next in the Ladies Downhill competition and I proceeded to search for a live stream of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics …..).

It’s now twenty minutes later – I still haven’t been able to find anything that will play live on my computer; I haven’t continued writing anything on here and I’ve been trying to focus all afternoon. There’s something about today – this week, that’s made me uneasy. I don’t know how to explain it, but it has.

Maybe all this multitasking is catching up with me, and – like the article suggests, I’m doing more juggling than multitasking.

(article written February 17th – but too many things got in the way and it wasn’t posted – go figure.)

I heard a song called Oh Canada on my way to work this morning. It was by Classified (ie. someone I’d never heard of before) and I have to say – I kind of teared up a bit as the lyrics rang on and on. It’s how I felt with this I Believe song that’s blasting every which way from Sunday since the Olympics started last Friday.

It makes me have this unusual outpouring of pride that I reside in this country. The same kind of pride I have when travelling overseas and people find out I’m Canadian and not American. It’s like the look on their faces makes me proud to be a part of a country that produces that kind of stereotypical response.

It’s the reason that I made it my mission last year to see all Canadian provinces (I only have two left) and Territories (all three left :/ ). It’s such an amazingly beautiful country that many of us never see because we can’t wait to get out to the hot vacation destinations or Europe (don’t get me wrong – I love those too). But we need to remember that we’re not just Canadian during the Olympics and there’s a deeper reason that we’re so proud when some person we’ve never heard about before slides down a mountain on a snowboard and beats the “favouring” American. Or bounces up and down on a mogul path and becomes the “first Canadian to win gold on our soil”.

What’s your reason?

mom: I think that R is just really learning and having all these experiences on you that one day, he really is going to be that amazing guy – to somebody else.

… long pause.

me: …. I don’t think so. I think he’s just a jerk.

mom (interjecting): No … maybe you’re right.

Social Media.

Two words, many, different enormous meanings. I’ve always been a fan the latest social media trend and always interested in the amazing ways it’s utilized within our society. I sporadically become fascinated with learning about them and figuring out how it changes the way people communicate with each other. It’s like I’m writing an essay every time I do this, but I can’t help it.

I used to be told this made me “creepy”. What was the point? What does it matter – you’re not living your life. Okay, so it never really got to intervention status, but my knowledge of computers, technology and love for social networking has definitely put me in hot water with friends, family and boyfriends in the past.

Recently, I’ve been in touch with so many people from my past, in my line of work, or just – random, interesting people. I find it invigorating. This connection I’m able to sustain with them when I don’t have time to breathe throughout the day. I’m busy. I’m working. I’m building websites. I’m researching businesses. I’m calling businesses. I’m calling people. I’m making PowerPoints. I’m grabbing my fifth coffee of the day – whatever. All the while communicating with all these people, the city I live in, the city I used to live in, potential clients, new clients, old friends, new friends, you get the idea.

I feel as though I’ve been awakened recently, however. As I discovered a world in which other people don’t find it creepy. In fact, if you were to use the term to describe their actions – they’d be ten hundred times creepier than I could ever hope to achieve! It’s great!

Where have I been, honestly, with fighting twitter for so long? Why did I bother? I know the answer to this; it was because I was told it was wrong. Weird. Impersonal. Secretly, I knew the answer – it’s not. It’s evolution of communication. I learned all about it. Personally, I’m kind of pissed off that I’m not in school while all of these changes are going on because I feel as though I’d rock it on my essays on communication in the new media world. I would rock them. Then again, I get to experience it now – and not feel guilty that I’m wasting my time on “useless” sites instead of studying for my upcoming exam.

I’ve been trained to feel guilty about these sites – that’s really it. It begins with the notion that social media is a waste of time, this notion that stems from people who are afraid of change. Afraid of these 24 year old kids bored on a Friday night getting these ridiculous ideas that work out and five years later have books written about them calling them “The Accidental Billionaires”.

Maybe social media is a waste of time for some people, but not for me. It’s bringing me back from a bit of a down spell and opening my eyes to all the different opportunities there are out there. All the people there are to meet. All the things there are to learn.

And who doesn’t love a twitter mention every now and again? It makes my heart flutter, just a tiny bit. So maybe that’s a bit creepy. I’m okay with that.