Addicted.

Confession: I am slightly extremist.

I don't know why, but my personality, tastes, and tendencies have the habit of being...rather all or nothing, let's say. Obsessive compulsive? Not quite. Single minded to the point of distraction? Probably a better description.

I have always been this way. I am so easily impassioned, I will get completely immersed in an idea or a topic or a plan, and throw my entire being into it headfirst. There was one summer where my sister and I and our two neighbor girls decided to start a business: we were going to make paper clip jewelry. We knew that we would make millions, because, you know, everyone needs a little bit more junk in their house. Our plans dominated my thoughts and conversations for the next few days [I was nine -- a few days is an eternity when you are nine]. Pricing lists, expansion ideas, cost of supplies; I probably had an entire notebook covered in color pencil scribbles and notes. I seem to remember that we were going to lure in buyers with an innocent looking lemonade stand, and then thrust our ingenious little necklaces and bracelets on our unsuspecting buyers who, given my dazzling sales presentation, would beg for more.

Well, unfortunately my big break never materialized. My jewelry debut has yet to be seen, because I got bored with my little game and dropped it like a little league left fielder with ADD. I think that I replaced my paper clip obsession with an urgent need to know everything I could about Clara Barton and Florence Nightengale. In retrospect, I was a really weird kid.

I have yet to grow out of my hot and cold, on and off, obsessive tendencies, and once again it has begun to ebb its way into my mind. You see, I have a new addiction, a dangerous little disaster waiting to happen. I have met the mistress of my procrastination, and her name is Mah Jongg.

That's right, this seemingly harmless ancient Chinese tile game is taking over. It's one of those things where you sit down to play one game, and then three hours later you're like, "Wtf. I'm dumb." On one hand, it's really nice at the office -- believe it or not, Facebook can get old, so it's nice to have this backup. On the other hand, I'm letting calls go to voicemail, I can't remember what else Heath asked me to do, and my eyeballs feel as if they are going to fall out of my head for lack of blinking. If I'm completely honest with you, this post has taken a long time to write, because I impulsively and without thinking click to the other tab that is open on my browser...the Mah Jongg tab...

I'm getting really good, too. I can finish an entire game in less than six minutes which, depending on who you ask, may or may not be pathetic. [Okay, since I wrote that last sentence, I have played three games. This is out of control].

It's not like this little game is consuming my life or anything...unless there is a computer in front of me. And the good news is that I have learned from my paper clip past, and I know that this phase is going to pass. In a year or so, after a long hiatus, I'll stumble upon some form of Mah Jongg and I will regress back into my obsession for an hour, then shudder and shake it off. This isn't a big deal; it's just a new way to melt my brain while I should be productive.

You know, I'm really starting to think that I'm not created for a 9-5. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go think about checking the voicemails while I squeeze a few more games in the last thirty minutes.