Organizing Life

It's often quite difficult to separate the different factors that go into so many of life's little mysteries. With the Trivia Night coming up tonight (April 28th), along with everything else going on, I've been struck by the difficulty of organizing activities. Do you remember when you were just a kid? Didn't it seem that everything just kinda happened because that's what was supposed to happen? We all had school and friends and football teams and band practice. Mom telling us what shoes to where cuz it was raining, or that we needed a scarf to protect us from the wind. If you wanted to put together a game of football (or in my case some street hockey or baseball) you just called up your buddy, walked across the street to another friends and the next thing you knew it was game on.

So what changed? Reminds me of the Beatles song, Help!:
"And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze."
Seems to answer the question of why it's so hard to get a bunch of people together for a day or night out these days. I started to notice it when I was living in Krakow. Along would come a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a day out at the park, Blonia, frisbee, baseball, football and a couple of cold ones with some friends, what could be better (well, maybe a nice barbecue to go along with it). So begins the text messaging ordeal. Back in the day, you made a plan and you stuck to it. However, in today's new and improved world, you can make a plan one minute, then thanks to connectivity, you just send a text and change plans. Of course this text leads to a chain reaction of more texts, which then leads to round three..., you get the picture. The same thing applied again this past weekend, glorious sunshine beckons us outside and we find ourselves en route to the park, big lake, a few cold ones with friends while enjoying some "funky ball" (a game I believe was invented at AGH in Krakow, involving running, throwing and drinking beer). Originally we were to meet about 10 or 12 people in the middle of the afternoon, but as the day progressed, the number regressed. With excuses as lame as I've got to study or work on some school project (that they evidently didn't know about before 3pm on Sunday afternoon) or I'd rather drink beer in a pub (ok, not so lame, but it was really sunny outside). Long story short, we end up at the lakeside, five of us managed to make it by about 6pm. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to sit and drink beer on the grass, feeling almost one with nature until a train passed by, but it would have been better to get a little game in as well (five can't play funky ball in case you're wondering).

Yes, we all have busy lives and yes it's nice to have a mobile phone when you're lost in the middle of a strange city, wandering from street to street and remember the life-line in your pocket, but come on! When you make a plan to do something, try to imagine life before your mobile, think about your other commitments and organize your time, don't let your phone do it for you.