Some Like It NOT

I don’t like resolutions. They always disappoint me. Or do I disappoint them? Either way, resolutions aren’t satisfying to me. And this year I resolve to be satisfactory.

Okay. Maybe resolutions are not likeable, but a little necessary, kind of like laundry and cleaning the bathroom.

One of the first decisions I made about life for me in 2010 is to stop blogging. When I told my NobodyWritesItBetter blog sisters that I was dropping the blogging because I realized I didn’t like it, there was a hue and cry to begin a movement to drop the above mentioned laundry and bathroom cleaning. Unfortunately, most of us will be stuck with those things for the foreseeable future.

So how do you deal with things you don’t like? I have a few tried and true methods. I’ll use my personal history with laundry chores as a case study in the set of finely honed skills I’ve acquire through years of Dealing (as in Dealing with fill in the blank.)

PROCRASTINATION—Yep. Wait until the baskets runneth over and you’re wearing your last clean outfit, which is a Sunday dress, to the Laundromat.

In the early years of my housekeeping, I had to make weekly trips to the Laundromat, which in Florida, in the summer, is akin to visiting the suburbs of hell. Yea. Put that off as long as you can.

FOCUS ON THE REWARD—Clean underwear.

When I acquired a washer, but no dryer, laundry had to be a daily task— pinned on the line by nine a.m. (before clothespins were a craft item) to be brought in sunny and fresh before the afternoon rain. A total of about three hours a day devoted to laundry. Sun-drenched, crisp, fresh sheets. Priceless.

MAKE THE TASK PLEASURABLE—Good tools, good atmosphere.

I’ve finally achieved ultimate laundry bliss. No, I don’t have a house servant. Even better, I have an air-conditioned laundry room stocked with state-of-the-art washer and dryer, organized sorting bins, detergent dispensers, folding table and hanging racks. It’s a thing of beauty, refined and designed by years of experience, trial and error, sweat and fashions best not recalled.

So what does this have to do with giving up blogging, you ask? Not much, except the fact that some things cannot be given up, only dealt with. When you must deal with a task that can’t be given up, you cope. You strategize. You plan and make it better.

I’ve dealt with exercise by playing tennis with a team instead of working out in a gym. I’ve dealt with meal planning by learning to cook fresh ingredients with a lot of flavor.

But some things in life, you’re allowed to choose not to deal with. After several years of trying to convince myself that those little nuggets bouncing around in my head are worth someone else spending time reading, I’m throwing in the towel. Those are my nuggets and I think I’ll just let them bounce around. I’m dealing with blogging by not dealing with it any longer.

Hope you get a good Deal in this New Year.

Signing off,

Teresa Brown

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