Making Something Easy, Complicated

 January 25, 2017

I pulled into the parking ramp at the Kellogg Center and looked for an open space. The closest one was being blocked by two men in suits in conversation. I pulled around them, parked further up the parking ramp, left my coat in the car and pulled out my computer bag.

I was ready for the day, excited to be attending the Write on the Red Cedar Conference.

I walked into the set of double doors, saw a sign indicating lobby, this way, so I started down the hall, and continued and continued. Where was this illusive lobby? Then I saw a sign indicating that the lobby was one floor up. How did that happen? I thought I was on the right floor. How did I end up one floor below? I took the elevator to the next floor and continued to walk. I passed signs for the Big Ten room and a Cattleman’s convention. Okay, so where was the writers’ convention? Where was the map to tell me where to go? The signs to point me in the right direction?

I saw a young woman in the hallway and asked her how to get to the lobby. Yes! She had a name tag! Then I asked her about the Writers Conference. She gave me directions, again down a long hallway, zigging and zagging. I missed the hallway to the registration table and ended up at the book sales table. From there I was directed back the way I came, turned right, down another hallway, this one narrower and shorter than the last, and at last I reached my destination.

After I picked up my materials, I ran into the young lady again. I told her about how hard it was to find this place.

“Where did you park?” she asks.

“In the parking garage.”

“That’s right over there,” she pointed out the window to a building next door.

How did I manage to make what should have been so easy, so complicated????

Such is my life. I’ve been to the Kellogg Center before, may even have made the same mistake, entering on the “Garden” level rather than the first floor. You would think I would remember such things, right? Nope. Too much time has passed between now and then. Maybe I’ll remember it next time . . .

This is especially true when it comes to technology. It’s so easy when you know what you are doing. But when you don’t . . . You can take wrong turns, end up on the wrong floor, go in the wrong direction and then walk right past your destination.

I just spent an hour trying to figure out how to sign a pdf form. I’ve done it before so I know it can be done, I just don’t remember how. I did an on-line search and watched a couple of videos, but when I did what the videos told me to do, it didn’t work. I know it’s simple if you know what you are doing. I just don’t know what I’m doing even though I’ve done it before. One time is not enough to burn the information into my brain.

I also complicate my life. I’ve been told I worry too much and overthink situations. Just roll with it, I’ve been told. I’m not good at rolling much of anything anymore, except maybe the occasional pie crust.

Life is complicated enough without me turning something simple into a major problem. I know this, yet I do it anyway.

So what’s a person to do? I guess I’ll just keep on, keeping on, fumbling my way through this life, trying to keep simple what I can keep simple. And when that fails, I call upon my God, who honors my efforts, no matter how feeble they may be.

What about you? Do you find yourself turning simple tasks into ginormous problems? What do you do to keep from complicating your life?