That quote, by Douglas Adams seems to sum a lot of my own behavior (and apparently I’ve regrettably passed on that trait to my son as evidenced in Laura’s post from yesterday: http://lifewithasperger.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/today-i-had-to-let-him-fail/. A month. I had a month to prepare for Coleman’s Den Meeting last night and yet, I waited until the very last minute. At 6:00 last night, an hour before Coleman’s Cub Scout Den Meeting, I was barbecuing and at the same time trying to learn to tie a clove hitch. This is a common pattern for me, one that has gone on for as long as I can remember. From the present day all the way back through elementary school.
Watch SpongeBob’s “Procrastination” on Nickelodeon…
In College, I had a take home exam for a Forestry class. An open book, take home exam. It consisted of three questions and I had five days to do it. So, as was (is) customary, I sat down at about 9:00 p.m. on the fourth night to begin my paper (the paper was due at 7:00 the next morning.) At 10:00 I had consumed all of the Mountain Dew in my apartment. Up to that time, I hated coffee. But by 1:00 a.m. I was in bad shape and needed caffeine. So my roommate had what I thought was just a funny little coffee maker. I filled it with coffee and it made a perfect mugfull. Unbeknownst to me, it was a cappucino maker and it actually made four demitasse cups full of coffee (or one big mugfull). Three or four mugfulls later, it was 6:30 and I was headed onto campus with my completed 27 page paper. I turned it in with several minutes to spare. I returned back to my apartment to ‘have a quick nap.’ Now, Laura and I had only been dating a few weeks at that time and we had a date at 8:00 that night, but that was the only thing left on my agenda for the day. The next thing I know, there is banging on my room door and Laura comes in and is asking me what happened and where had I been? “What do you mean what happened?” I stared blearily as I tried figure out what the glowing shapes on my clock meant. I eventually deciphered that they said “7:30”. “It’s only 7:30” I said, “why are you upset?” “Yeah it’s 7:30, 7:30 Thursday morning. I had slept through 24 hours. Luckily, Laura forgave me anyway. Thus began two great loves, one with Laura, the other with coffee.
The bad thing is, I sometimes get positive reinforcement for working like a madman under a deadline. I got an A on the exam. I think I could do even better though with other things if I could organize myself a little better. I guess I’ll keep working on that. I’ll start it tomorrow though.
Milk Under the Dam 
I could sure relate to this. I went through university before they had invented wordprocessors and I couldn’t type at all. I was blessed with a girlfriend who was willing to stay up all night before each of my papers were due. I would write a page in pen and hand it to her. She would type that page while I hand wrote the next one. I wouldn’t have graduated without her staying up several nights. I have always needed pressure to produce.