dreadedcandiru2 | Panic, exhaustion and other symptoms of poor time management.

Despite what I might say, the image of Elly Patterson standing around bellowing in rage and jabbing her finger in the air like a crazy woman after encountering some non-event that her paranoia and negativity have turned into a crisis is not the only image I have of her. I also think of her as either looking like she got rode hard and put away wet or tear-assing around in a blind panic shoving things into a less insane person's hands. The last thing

hoppytoad79 did before leaving the Foobiverse behind is hint as to why that might be; it seemed to her that the slipshod way Elly 'planned' Michael's birthday party is symptomatic of a wider problem. A normal person would know that she had to take charge of things so that she didn't wind up losing control of the situation. It was Elly's job to plan out the event beforehand so she'd have things run the way she wanted to, Elly's job to come up with the entertainment, Elly's job to make sure that when one event ended, the next began, Elly's job to time when food was served, Elly's job to make sure that the guests put the presents where she wanted them, Elly's job to make sure that Lizzie swallowed her Jell-O before butting in and blowing out Michael's candles. The only contribution Michael was supposed to make was to relay instructions from the person throwing it. Had that happened, Elly would not have been running around like an idiot responding to crises and not ended up feeling like she was about to die.

The problem is that Elly never seems to have realized that she has to plan out her day so that she isn't all the time reacting to things and letting things get ahead of her. This tells me that Marian's worry that Elly would become a selfish, demanding tyrant were simply the after-effects of dealing with one of the horrible, selfish idiot patriarchs that litter the Liographies. What she should have worried about instead is how Elly never seemed to plan things out very well and taught her some handy tips to save time. The first tip should, as I'm about to explain, is to not let herself get guilted into over-extending herself.