I was in a Poor-Quality Mood this morning, so I drank some coffee and took the three littles with me to Target. Seriously, you cannot fathom how talkative the littles were. They were so perky, and so talkative, and so all-talking-at-once, and so CONSTANT AND ENDLESS, other shoppers kept laughing out loud.
This led to some distracted shopping, apparently, and I have had an opportunity to practice one of the Life Skills I am forever trying to acquire/develop: Not Freaking Out Over Small Unimportant-in-the-Long-Run Things.
I bought what I thought was a new indoor/outdoor thermometer, the kind that has a probe outside and a readout panel inside so you can look at a panel in the kitchen and see what the temperature is outside. But somehow I spent $10 on something that attaches to the outside of a window so it can’t be in any sunny window which is inconvenient, and it only does the outdoor temperature, and it only goes down to 14 degrees, and the battery case is so stupid I BROKE IT trying to open it. This is okay. It was a mistake. It is sad that I didn’t realize the mistake before slicing the packaging open, but it is not necessary to spend any time fretting about it.
Also, I needed to buy a new telephone, because ours makes a EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sound piercingly and intermittently ever since a child dropped it, but I got all flustered by the options (our old one is a corded wall phone and the ones in the store all looked like space communicators) and I chose a corded one that had caller ID! How convenient! And of course YOU smart people know it only had caller ID if the person who purchases the phone has caller ID, which we don’t. If I’d known this, I could have bought that one that cost $10 less, but I didn’t know this until the phone was fully installed. And this is okay. Ten dollars here and there is not a big deal, even if this is now TWO ten dollar mistakes in one shopping trip.
And then I bought some vitamin D tablets, and I was all, “How come this brand is $4 and this brand is $8? That’s dumb! I’ll get the $4 ones!” How is it that someone who used to work in PHARMACY failed to notice that one was a lower DOSE than the other? Well, that is fine. It is fine that I bought the lower-dose tablets. I can just take two, or three, or whatever, and next time I will remember to buy the right strength, and the earth will continue to go around the sun.
Have I mentioned recently how much I admire those of you who do these “the earth will continue to go around the sun” calculations AUTOMATICALLY, without having to explain it to yourself each time? I do. I do admire you.
I just bought some Vitamin D tablets today myself and I almost had to sit down and put my head between my legs just trying to decide which dose to buy, there were like seven different options. I chose 2000 IUs. I hope it makes me happy and not SADD.
I love this skill. I am learning it from my husband.
Aww! It happens.
Can I just say, I would one day like to have a large family just so I can designate my kids as “Bigs” and “Littles”. It sounds SO CUTE. OMGZ.
(I take Vitamin D too! It’s apparently a wonder vitamin that performs MIRACLES! And is made of STARS! and RAINBOWS! and PUPPIES! Or something like that.)
I calculate but it’s still a chore. I’d rather not give a crap, you know?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought the wrong dosage of vitamins. But I did ask my nurse the last time, and it turned out the lower dose was just fine and so I didn’t have to double up. You might want to check into it, just in case.
I am also not one of those people who stresses out over smallrunofthemill things. I have not figured out how to just let go already. Do a big post on that when you sort it out, yes?
So do you still have your receipt from Target? Because although they have some annoying return policies, I have had great success at returning things from them even after I have opened them AS LONG AS I HAVE THE RECEIPT. I recently bought a humidifier for my son’s room, but it was an ultrasonic one, and it spewed this weird white dust everywhere (the room looked like there was a fire in there when I checked on him at naptime, there was so much dust/powder), and I just emptied it and took it back, after having used the thing for about 2 weeks. Hey, I was lazy. But! They took it back! I also returned those mesh feeder bags after opening the package, and they didn’t even blink. I’m falling back in love with Target, I tell you. I hope you can take your stuff back. Because $20 could buy you so much fun stuff.
Urgh. I get really frustrated with stuff like that. All I can think is $20!! $20! Ugh.
My husband is much better at letting go of things, but he also has a terrible memory. hee
I like Tess’s “sunk cost” theory and how she applies it to life. Very useful.
I would return the thermometer even if it has been opened. I bet Target will take it back. And I wouldn’t feel guilty about it since you take your buisness there so frequently.
Being able to let go and not obsess over stuff is a great skill. My husband and I take turns over who is the “obsess-er” and who is the “calmer downer”. (which I recognize is completely grammatically incorrect but I am letting it go.:)
I agree – take the stuff back. Think how many brownies that $20 will buy!
Yes, take the stuff back. Target is awesome about returns even with open packages.
All I can think of now is that Save the Best for Last Song– “sometimes the snow comes down in June, sometimes the sun goes round the moooooooon”
I wish I did the sun around the earth calculations at all. I need to commit that to memory. I used to ask myself, “Will this matter in the light of eternity?” when I’d get upset, but then I wanted to punch myself in the trachea each time, so that shit had to STOP.
I would return all of those items. Are you a non-returner, or does the returning just seem too much a hassle, considering? My husband is a staunch non-returner. I return maybe 30% of all the non-staples, non-groceries I buy. Just curious.
I let smallworld things really get to me, too, like it says something about ME as a person and what is inside my HEART.
But it’s not, and it’s not. Right? Right.
I’m with you, is what I’m saying.
If it makes you feel any better, I TOTALLY have to explain it to myself each and every frickin’ time.
In Canada we have the best thing ever — they’re called “D drops”. Do you have them there? You can get them in either 400 IU or 1000 IU. You only need one drop! So at supper time, everyone gets one drop on their fork! This is much more convenient than tablets or even the whole ml I had to give my other kids when they were babies. (For a baby you just put it on a soother.)
Lots of people up here are taking insanely high amts of vitamin D to prevent from getting H1N1…amongst the other benefits of vitamin D.
I keep a handy corded $6 phone around for when the power goes out.
I don’t have caller ID, but I like being able to lie in bed when I’m on the phone. Hence, cordless.
i have to ask do the people at target know you by name now? do you get some kind of frequent shopper card? when all the kids go to school i think you should work there just for the discount
I just did the stupid “buy the wrong phone” thing. I bought a phone with (what I thought was) an answering machine. It was not. It was a phone with “voicemail capabilities”. Technology twit that I am, I don’t know the difference. I do now. I also know that I don’t have a voice mail service.
Finally. Someone else who can relate to three small children. Who. Talk. Incessantly.
Together.
Apart.
In unison.
Over each other.
At each other.
Singing, shouting or whispering.
Just always, always, always using the voice box.
I had to talk myself down from a serious ledge the other night at the grocery store when I realized my stupid little bonus card. I calmed down & remembered the service desk could look it up for me, which they did, and I was able to get my discounts. I looked at my receipt afterwards, and you know how much I saved? $1.86. A DOLLAR AND EIGHTY-SIX CENTS. I had to talk myself out of a panic for that. I am ridiculous.
Uh…I meant to say “I realized I FORGOT my stupid little bonus card.” Yes, I forgot to say FORGOT. Clearly I am doing something right.
I am still learning too. A wrong-but-not-so-much trip to target has the potential to put me in a huge funk. I realize its often not a big deal but still I can’t just be all blase about it. I’m working on it.
I don’t usually work myself up about little snafus here and there. I’m pretty good at forgiving myself for wasting money, I guess!
But you know? I am constantly having to remind myself of YOUR “every little bit helps” theory. It’s something that seems so obvious to most people, probably, but I get SO easily overwhelmed if there’s even a bit of a mess in the kitchen, or toys strewn about in more than one room of the house. I immediately get all, “OMG, the house is a disaster and is going to take HOURS to tidy up and woe is me I may as well screw it and fall onto the couch in despair!” And then I think, “What would Swistle do? Even one counter wiped is better than nothing!”
So see. You have the useful life skilz, too.
I have done this TWICE! TWICE! with the wrong kind of Orange Juice. I accidently bought the Less Sugar (meaning more after-tastey sweetener stuff) and OJ ain’t cheap. I was so frustrated with myself but I admitted immediately that I was too lazy to return it so I poured it down the drain and took the garbage so the whole ‘out of sight’ thing would possibly kick in.
g~
I picked up “the earth will still go around the sun” skills when I worked in a crazy, off-the-wall, event planning buisiness for a couple of years. My motto became something along the lines of “Whatever happens, the event will still go on, the couple will get married, and it will NOT matter that the boquet was pink roses instead of fuschia…”
Thank GOD I learned it before my twins were born, or I might have had a total breakdown in those first couple of months!
Beth- I’m a fearful returner. Like, I’ll return something perfect and still in the package, or I’ll return something defective and opened, but I am soooooooo nervous about returning things that are fine but opened.
Oh I am CRAZY about returning stuff. I just picture literally throwing that money away and then bamalama, no qualms about returning it anymore. $20 means a lot more to me than it does to Target. And I’m just going to turn around and spend it right there in the store because I cannot walk in that place without dropping at least $50, even if all I *needed* was a notebook or something else really cheap.
i’m good at the earth-will-continue-to-rotate rationalizations because i am LAZY. come home and realize i bought the wrong vitamins? UGH. i’d have to GO BACK to the store and DO STUFF to get the right ones. annoying. i’d rather just a) take the wrong ones and ignore that they’re wrong, or b) put the wrongs ones on a shelf for “later” and ignore them until the next time i do a Grand Cleaning. i am very good at out-of-sight-out-of-mind-ing!
I find that little things drive me crazy only when they make me feel either (a) powerless or (b) angry at myself. So rather than focusing on how relatively unimportant the issue is, I talk myself out of it instead by addressing the underlying cause. So, say I buy the wrong thermometer and feel annoyed at myself – I remind myself that I’m inattentive to those kinds of details because I’m preoccupied with my rich inner life, and that cheers me up immediately.
I fret over the small things. But, I have to agree that you should be able to take those things back and spend that $20 another way. :)
Wow- good to know I’m not the only person out there that can’t seem to get over the small stuff. I get so annoyed with myself over how upset I get over little things (cue snowball effect). I think I need to internalize your motto, because you’re right- the earth will continue to go around the sun!
Last night I realized I’d bought Low Fat cottage cheese instead of regular. I actually rested my head on the counter for a minute, closed my eyes and almost let a tear slip out. Clearly I need medication.
I’m the exact same way. I think it’s just a characteristic of nervous/fretful personalities.
A couple of weeks ago a package of ribs was freezer burnt. I beat myself up over it for a whole day. I wasted food, I wasted money, I should have packaged them better. Then I looked at the price tag when I finally got the guts up to make the act of tossing them out. It was $2 something. I wasted a whole day worrying about less than $3.
My husband bought one of those thermometers. If we put it on the back of the house window it reads ONEMILLIONDEGREES when the sun shines directly on it. We put it in the front of the house and it always reads COLD because that area is much cooler. It’s in a nook area. Then the evening sun shines on it and it reads ONEMILLIONDEGREES. TOTAL FAILBOAT huband.
I don’t know if you have the ability to return just about anything (I learned this ability recently) and if I were you, I would return it. Even if the packaging is fucked up and you broke it. Reason for return: “It sucks!” You can do that at Target with a receipt OR the credit/debit card you used. Same with the phone.
Wait a minute! People out there don’t have to talk themselves down? (Which is what I call “The Earth Will Continue to go Around the Sun” in my world.