I find myself staring at my ceiling a lot at night these days. It’s less insomnia and more me wondering about what it means to be a grown-up and wishing terribly for the days when I was so scared of being on my own that I literally slept on the floor of my parents’ bedroom for weeks at a time. Those, those were the good old days.
She says, half kidding.
I’ve been seeing someone pretty regularly. She’s my therapist. And we have discussions about things I worry about, because, duh, and sometimes she points out that what I’m really doing is finding things to worry about because I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not worrying. Which is totally not true. We all know that I’d just sit around eating ice cream all day if I wasn’t worried about sitting around eating ice cream all day.
The things I’ve been worrying about constantly lately are really the tropes of adulthood, and are, thus, incredibly annoying. What freaks me out is that they will not stop until I die. BECAUSE REALLY, LIFE, YOU CAN’T GET MORE STRESSFUL THAN THAT.
So, join me as I list the things I’ve been worried about/stressed about lately:
Grocery Shopping
Look, we all know I love food. I can’t get enough of it. I love shoving handfuls of the stuff from my grubby little paws into my slimy little maw and filling my cheek like a hamster preparing for the apocalypse. I LOVE IT. Especially kale.
The thing is, though, I have to, like, buy groceries often. Like once every two weeks or so. And every time I do, it’s like, wait, wasn’t I JUST here? Shouldn’t I have enough food to last me for, I don’t know, a year or something, before I have to mosey back to the store and sulk through the aisles like the gollum I am? Shouldn’t I get to enjoy not spending money for like a MONTH before I have to spend more money? Shouldn’t my supply of cereal, eggs, kale, apples, bananas, buckwheat, almonds, and yogurt last me until the leaves have finally emerged from their twig hyperbaric chambers? I MEAN, I SERIOUSLY BOUGHT YOGURT LIKE TWO DAYS AGO AND I’M ALREADY OUT AND JESUS CHRIST I AM HAVING A PANIC ATTACK ABOUT GREEK YOGURT.
And then going to the grocery store. It’s like Germ City and you have to touch the things you want to buy, and undoubtedly a zillion other people have touched them and who knows what they’ve been doing with their hands but I can guarantee you at least four of them have stuck their fingers up their nose or down their butt-crack in the last half hour and then decided that they didn’t want the avocado that you’re now holding in your hand. (Thankfully, with the tough skin of an avocado, the germs might not have permeated as deeply, I tell myself)
I just don’t understand how I keep filling up my pantry and it keeps getting empty again. I mean, logically, I get it. I know I’m being an idiot. But I’m so tired of grocery shopping and I just want to be able to plug myself into a wall and get all the nutrients I need. Hey, Apple, get on that, would you? (iFood–when it debuts, thank me. Or assassinate me.)
Laundry
Just like the grocery store, isn’t it? I mean, I JUST washed all those clothes like two weeks ago. It kind of freaks me out that I have these chores that will just never end as long as I live, and laundry is no exception. I mean, why bother putting my clothes away at all if I’m just going to wear them in two days and wash them in seven anyway? Why bother folding that t-shirt when I am going to throw it on tomorrow morning when I get dressed for work? Why put my superhero underwear away when I really just wish I could wear it all the time? Why get dressed at all, really? Why are clothes a thing? Why can’t I live in a nudist colony where everyone is attractive and it’s also not weird to be in a nudist colony? Why can’t a magical laundry fairy–Hi, mom!–take care of it for me? (That’s a joke; I’ve been doing my own laundry since I was 10 years old. That’s almost 14 years of laundry-doing, and only about… 60 more to go. Jesus) Nothing makes me confront my own mortality more than separating my darks from my lights.
Money
This is really the heart of the matter. Money keeps me up at night when I’d rather be kept up at night watching Game of Thrones. It gives me panic attacks about once a week because of bills when I’d rather have panic attacks about, I don’t know, anything else.
I keep pretty close track of my expenses. I know when I’m stepping out of bounds and being grandiose with cash I don’t have, so I’m good at reigning myself in. And each month I’m like, “oh, I had extraordinary expenses this month because of getting my car registered/tax preparation/vacation/plane tickets/doctor visit/exorcism and next month it won’t be so bad.” Then, inevitably, NEXT MONTH IT IS JUST AS BAD! I won’t go out to eat! I won’t go to the movies! I won’t buy any clothes! I won’t do anything fun! But yet, I had to drive to main campus more often and that’s a good 200 miles a week and Atreyu needs dog food and I need people food and my gym membership expired and I have to pay rent and I have to pay tuition AND JESUS CHRIST JUST STOP ALREADY.
Why is money a thing? Why can’t I just, like, hug someone whenever I need something? Why can’t we decide, as a society, that there are enough material goods in the world so we no longer need to pump out anything new and charge monies for them? Why can’t we just trade our other goods and some services (hugs, you PERVERTS) for the necessities? Why am I such a hippie?
Ugh, all this worrying is exhausting.
It’s bed time.
Highest Form of Whit 
In Capitalism you’re being taken advantage of by people more ambitious than you. In Socialism you’re taken advantage of by people lazier than you. Not that you need anything else to worry about, but there is no easy answer… 😉
I’m going to earn enough money to buy myself an island somewhere and live sustainably and NEVER BE BOTHERED BY ANYONE. Except when I want to go to the movies…
This fits into my plans to run a movie theater on a deserted island perfectly! There are a few nagging details I haven’t worked out yet…
CAN I HELP?!
You’ll probably have to…
This is an excellent post! Anxiety and worrying keeps us awake all night. I decided to dump my job and become self-employed. Will I make it? Can I provide for my kids? These thoughts keep me awake
See, those are REAL thoughts to worry about? I just like to fret about stupid things.
Reblogged this on rodriandotco.
Reblogged this on mgtrrz's Blog.
You worry too much. I wish you all the happiness in the world. Where food, money, errands and everything don’t exist.
PS: Happiness comes from within
I’m quite happy. And as I have an anxiety disorder, worrying is pretty much a job. But these are mostly exaggerated worries, because it’s fun to make fun of myself.
Life IS an anxiety disorder! Living in the present is bullshit unless you are in deep dreamless sleep or God Realized! The rest of us mere mortals live in , or with a mind that is incessant and recalcitrant and that’s on a good day!
That’s an interesting way to think about it… I think my life is then an anxiety disorder on steroids. Or speed.
I totally understand about the laundry. I live out of my laundry basket. When it’s empty, I dump my hamper into it, take it downstairs to clean and bring it back upstairs to live out of. Who needs a closet?
WHO NEEDS CLOTHES. That’s the logical next step, right?
That’s a little bit of a slippery slope, but it would definitely be at the end of a long list of steps! Haha.
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
I, too, get freaked about how many times a month I have to hit up the grocery store for the EXACT SAME THINGS. The redundancy makes me feel like I’m my own annoying pet, which I have a never-ending responsibility to keep feeding. One of these days I’m just gonna set myself loose in the woods and be done with it.
Or make a garden! If gardens produced yogurt…
This totally happens to me every time I open my American Express. Each month I have no idea how I can keep $400 in my wallet for weeks on end without needing to break a bill for a week, but I can’t keep my Amex under…. I am not even going to say it. It’s that ridiculous. I do the same thing that you do with regard to the unexpected expenses and vow to do better…. But nope! As far as laundry goes, as a family of 5 I have reconciled myself to laundry daily for the rest of my life. Time so ill-spent that I should be accountable to St Peter….. Sigh. I will be stressing over this at 2:00am tonight and I will think of you then. 🙂
Right? I just can’t even. Money is such a weird thing!
I don’t worry at night, I listen to the radio. Coast to coast am has all the conspiracies you ever want to know about. It often puts me to sleep.
Leslie
Oh, man. Listening to conspiracies would TERRIFY me. I don’t know how you do it!
They don’t terrify me, they make me angry that so few can cause so much misery on so many. I write songs about them. That takes away a lot of the anger, because not only have I had my say, everyone is going to hear about it. You see there are more of us than there are of them.
Leslie
I get angry about them, too, but fearful because what kind of world would we live in if that were a reality?
There is a lot of reality to those conspiracies. You just have to look at what is happening around us.
Leslie
For nearly a year, I went rogue at the groceries and just switched my diet out entirely from week to week to avoid the panic of redundancy. I just went in with a certain amount of dollars, and bought anything I could grab until I ran out of the money I brought in. Of course, that’s how I ended up malnourished on a nearly-upper-middle-class-suburban-income, so don’t do that! Looking back, though, for a whole year of worry-free shopping… it was alllllmost worth it.
The laundry thing… my husband does it for me. Phew! I wouldn’t want to think of what I’d come up with if I was on my own, and anxiety was calling the shots. I’d probably try to bring back togas.
I’m glad you’re working with a therapist… so often anxiety goes untreated because it’s accompanied by funny stories, that are actually not funny at all when you’re living them. Good for you. *hugs*
(Oh, and that’s a free hug. I don’t even want anything! Which is why I’d be anti-hugs-as-currency… it’d make them as sad-making as money.)
I love you, and that sounds amazing. That’s a great idea.
Also, I should get married so someone should do laundry for me.
Cool blog Witt!!! Keep it up.
Thanks, friend! Come out to SH sometime!
Great post! I know EXACTLY what you mean. It’s like all your thoughts are consumed with everyday worries and even though you really ARE happy, you just can’t help but wonder why. It’s like your brain is on overload and as much as you want it to stop so you can resume your happy lifestyle, sometimes it Just. Won’t. Stop. It’s frustrating as all hell. Good luck and take care. 🙂
Sometimes I think my brain just likes to mess with me. Right? Right.
I thought your blog was very funny and entertaining. I really enjoyed it! For more funny blogjuice, come visit mine at Begoodorbgoodatit.com
Thank you, friend.
Oh my God! I can totally relate to this!!
Good, I’m glad!
I just wanted to point out the weirdly eerie beauty of the line ‘Nothing makes me confront my own mortality more than separating my darks from my lights.’ Fellow GAD sufferer here – loving the blog. Really great writing.
Thank you so much, friend! Everything about that comment made me smile, except that you’ve got GAD, too. Lame, innit?
Great post, anxiety many millions were fighting with these emotions around the globe. Each and every person choose the different way to come out from these feelings. Some are CBT, antidepressants, herbs, homeopathy, acupuncture, breathing exercises, yoga, meditation choose the best and effective one which was suitable one and try to conquer over the anxiety.