While grocery shopping yesterday, I grabbed a 12 pack of my favorite paper towels. Shocked by the outrageous price of $14.96, I stepped back while my eyes scanned the other options, all of which were lower priced. I had tried the other towels over the years but none could equal my favorites. (BTW, this is not an ad for paper towels. Note, no mention of a brand. Email or call me if you want the brand name).
Then it hit me! On average I use two rolls of paper towels a month. With slightly over four months until departure, we will end up with about three unused rolls of paper towels including the additional cleaning to do before we sign off on the house. No need to buy the 12 pack.
With the eight pack in hand at $9.97, the math swirling around my head, I laughed aloud at my ridiculousness, threw the eight pack in the cart and moseyed over the toilet paper, again going through the same preposterous calculations.
I passed on the toilet paper, having counted the eight rolls on the shelf above the toilet before heading to the grocery store this morning, as I often do. No imminent need for the ultra soft, zillion sheets, favorite toilet paper either. (Please email or call for that brand).
Certainly, a reader of this blog thinks I am the female version of Howie Mandell. I am picky, but I can be kissed, hugged, shake hands and touch the rail on the escalator at the mall (although I seldom go to a mall preferring to shop online). I wash my hands about 20 times a day, less from obsession, more from a logical desire for the safe handling of our food.
OCD?? Not really. I prefer to call it “detail orientated.” Perfectionism? I suppose, to a degree. I have messy cupboards and drawers with the intent to prove that I’m not a perfectionist. After all, wouldn’t a perfectionist, try to be so perfect as to try not to appear to be a perfectionist?
Who knows and basically, who cares? No one. Tom is hardly annoyed. Our kids think I’m weird in any case. And, most of all, I am neither stressed nor suffer any angst as a result of it. Periodically, I engage in a bout of worry in the middle of the night. Then again, who doesn’t occasionally worry in the middle of the night?
Thus, I am a content “detail orientated” individual that may annoy some of the people some of the time that, if they choose, may tease me relentlessly and I will genuinely chuckle.
Yes, I’m packing too much stuff. Yes, I spend too much time looking for a better deal on a small item. Yes, I will hang clothes in the shower to get out the wrinkles. Yes, I will wear a different outfit every formal night aboard ship and have ample choices for Tom as well.
Yes, I will continue my healthful, low carb, wheat, grain, sugar, starch and gluten free diet. (Tom, not so much, especially aboard ship). Yes, I will continue to workout and take a handful of supplements each day. Yes, Tom will continue to spend endless hours working online, fine tuning his ancestry.
We will bring with us, into this new life of world travel, who we are, our endless peculiarities, our annoying habits, our comfortable and seemingly pointless rituals and of course, some of our stuff. I don’t think we’ll bring paper towels or toilet paper but then again…
You are so delightfully candid and authentic. Pack several journalsj and continue writing. This has the makings of a book.
How sweet you are to say this! But, no journals here. I have illegible handwriting. I was pushed up a grade from 3rd to 4th and missed learning how to handwrite. As a result, I have been typing for decades and am a lousy typist to boot!
Thanks for visiting our blog, Kathy! It means so much to us both.
Hugs, Jess