Zapped by the good idea fairy.

You know when you are in a meeting to plan some activity or event and instead of focusing on the task at hand, the people in the room start suggesting good ideas? You know, echelons-above-reality type ideas that would be really great but such a pain in the ass to implement? And those ideas -- though, great, really! -- totally take away from the whole point of the meeting which is to simplify that original activity or event by delegating pieces to make actually possible to go away and implement?

You know what I'm talking about? It's what my husband calls "attack of the good idea fairy." And I sat through 3 hours of it today as we attempted to plan what should have been a totally mundane bake sale.

Somehow, the simple act of discussing what kind of baked goods to assign to each group became a discussion of the potential of helium balloon sales, cookie decoration contests, funnel cake machines and a doggie and/or child dress-up parade (you know, because we don't want to put off those without kids). I know there was more inanity but honestly, I started zoning out when someone had to talk about the Darth Vader costume they had for their Westie. Otherwise, I think I might have gone postal and beaten someone to death with their fundraising idea book.

I tried to rein folks in. I did. I pointed out that with limited time, it would probably be better to focus our efforts on excelling in one task than stretching ourselves and doing a shoddy job of several. But it was too late. The good idea fairy had tapped my compatriots with her magic wand, leaving them with visions of balloon animals and face painting dancing in their heads. And frankly, any argument made up of reason stood no chance.

There are days when I really, really wonder what I'm doing in the FRG.