It’s interesting how different people live their lives. S&S got home and instead of turning into a hermit pile of wet rags as I would have done, they invited us for supper, unpacked, started doing laundry, cleaned the bathroom mirrors, and got themselves out to the local coffee shop to declare themselves home to the community. I was exhausted just writing that list, much less actually doing it immediately after a 50-hour transcontinental move.
Meanwhile, I have moved offices about fifteen times in the past 2 decades and I have left boxes of stuff still packed each time. Once a month, Laird flips out and washes all the clothes and then I get dressed out of hampers for the next three and a half weeks. We have been in our house for 8 years without even once attempting to clean the bathroom mirror. When I got home from a mere 2 weeks away, I was cagey for days and resented anytime anyone asked me “so how was your trip?”
So different.
SC is a wreck of overwhelmed tears. And who could blame her? Aside from the above, they have to get their unorthodox child back to school on Monday, SS has a job interview, the house they left wasn’t cared for as well as one might hope, and there are still plenty of loose ends leftover from the move back home – nevermind the jetlag. As I told Laird – SC and I are basically the same personality, but she’s further along the scale of Overworked and Overwrought than I am. If I get more than three things to have to deal with at a time, I turn into a way bigger pile of tears than she does. I don’t know how she gets it through a day with the load of expectations she puts on herself.
And yet, I wish I could expect a bit more of myself. She and I are opposite extremes: she can’t relax, and I can’t be productive. Our lives have shaped our natural inclinations, hormones, personalities – whatever it is that I recognize in her as a match to what is in me – such that she’s always looking for the next project, while I’m always looking for the next time I can sit somewhere that I don’t have to hold my head up any longer. Our values are different – not the core ones like Be A Good Human, but the details as to what that means. She values Community; I don’t even know if the house across the street from me has people living in it. She can’t say No; I rarely agree to do anything because I know it’ll be too hard and I won’t get it done.
I would really like to get some of her work ethic exchanged for some of my lazy attitude. We could both use the balance.
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| listening | soulful heartache - playlist on google music |
| eating | leftover boston pizza. insufficient amounts! moar! |
| making | unreasonably long to-do lists |
| feeling | pensive |
| loving | my extended family |