It's time to seize the day

Danielle Switalski

If there is one thing I am good at it, it is wasting time. Hours will go by and I will literally have no idea how I spent them. I have decided that if there is anything I need to do in 2010, it’s to seize the day. You know, carpe diem.

This past weekend was a perfect example of my extreme talent at time wasting.

The only reason I actually realized I wasted so much time trying to accomplish a simple task is because I not only wasted my time, but my friend Brandie’s time as well. It was her mistake to agree to help me fix my vacuum.

Before Christmas, I broke my third vacuum in my life. It wasn’t so bad this time, as it was my vacuum and in the past I always broke my mom’s vacuum and she has always been very fond and attached to her vacuum cleaners.

It broke as the last few had broken, me thinking I could suck up a rock instead of simply bending down to pick it up.

Three weeks ago when I broke my vacuum Brandie, the fixer of all my problems, came over to look at it. She said the exact same thing my mom did, “Well, if you sucked up a rock, you probably broke the belt.” Not knowing what or where on the vacuum this belt exists, I was ready to just go out and buy a whole new vacuum with my Christmas cash. Brandie told me belts are only $3 and it would be utter stupidity to buy a new vacuum, even though it seemed easier than taking apart an appliance.

Sure enough, my mom and Brandie were both right, I broke the belt. Brandie removed the old belt weeks ago and told me not to lose it until I buy a new one.

Naturally, three weeks later I had lost the belt. Here is when the real time wasting began.

Brandie picked me up and we went to Gambles on Sunday afternoon. She asked me if I brought the belt. I, of course said, “what belt? I’m buying a new one, I don’t need the old one.”

We drove back to my apartment to painstakingly search for my old belt. To no avail, we couldn’t find it. So I wrote down the make of my vacuum and off to Gambles we went for the second time.

Brandie’s grandmother Margaret McNeil, who works at Gambles, helped me try and find the right belt to fit the make of my vacuum. She then told me I had to go back home and write down some numbers on my vacuum to match it to a belt. I was hoping third times a charm as Brandie and I hopped back into her car to go back to my apartment.

Finally buying the proper belt, I bought Brandie a coffee to soften the blow when I asked her to come back over and put the new belt on, even though she showed me how to change it three weeks ago, which of course, I didn’t remember.

An hour and a half later my vacuum was fixed. I somehow wasted another two hours (most likely reading a magazine and going through my TV recordings) before actually vacuuming my carpet, which was starting to resemble the outside.

Lesson learned. If I would have gone and bought the belt three weeks ago, I never would have lost it and wasted an entire afternoon trying to vacuum 10 feet of carpet. I am officially going to stop wasting time and seize the day instead of skipping absentmindedly through it while wasting my friends’ time. Carpe Diem, as they say.

If you have tips on how to be more efficient, please e-mail Danielle at Reporter@vp-mi.com