Certainly it could be PMS—but couldn’t it also be that my children are impossible and I married the wrong person?
One way I know it’s mid-winter is that everything either pisses me off or depresses me. I used the f-word (though only about 30% voiced) in front of my mother the other day, and usually I am the kind of person who says “bull” with only the slightest hesitation to let you know I’m thinking of what the second half of that word could theoretically be.
Oh! Here’s something happy that happened: I needed a new clock, and I bought a replacement and it is WAY TOO BRIGHT—like, I turn my back to it so the light won’t bother me. But I’d already thrown out the packaging, so I felt stuck with it and also mad at myself for throwing out the packaging and having such a hard time with the sunk-costs concept. Then at Target I found a clock on an endcap that was a “repackage” so it was $10-something down from $15, and I impulsively/defiantly bought it. It rang up at $13.99 so I’m going to have to go back and get that fixed, and so far this story is an illustration of how everything pisses me off and/or depresses me, but it is about to take a turn for the better.
The clock was in a bag waiting for me to take it back to Target, and the alarm kept going off (okay, this is still not better), so I thought, “Actually, why don’t I take it out and set it up, because the WORST would be to go get the price adjusted and then end up returning it.” So I set it up this morning, and I love it. I feel FONDLY toward it, in a way I would not have expected to feel toward an alarm clock. Part of it is that I’d thought it was broken because I couldn’t set the time, but then I read the instructions and found out what I was doing wrong and the clock was not broken. Part of it is that it has a brightness setting, and TWO alarms, and it’s a radio. When I took it out of the box it seemed HUGE (this is it; it looks petite, doesn’t it? IT IS NOT), and I thought there was no way I was going to end up keeping it—but not only am I keeping it, I went into my room later to VISIT THE CLOCK.
Your first sentence spoke to me. I too married the wrong person and the child on the outside is impossible and the child on the inside is MAKING MY LIFE SO DIFFICULT. Who taught this kid to tap dance before he’s even born????
:-) Definitely mid winter. Ugh.
Answer to first sentence: both. Both can be simultaneously true. PMS is just the harsh light of truth that mother nature sheds over our lives once a month.
I just LOVE those small often impulsive purchases that turn out so well! I feel like I recently had a similar experience – I got, as a gift, a picture frame that was so not my style as to make my face wrinkle up with distaste. But I thought I could shove it in the guest room and not have to look at it much. Separately, for a 4×6 frame I wanted to bring to my office, I ordered a photo of the baby from CVS – a photo I ADORE – for some ridiculous low price. But the photo came out terribly – dull and CVS had printed the photo too big: 5×7, and didn’t seem to understand why I was irritated – i only had to pay for the (cheaper) 4×6 I ordered; I was getting a DEAL – and I didn’t want to argue, so I brought the ugly photo home and shoved it in the ugly frame and brought it to the office. And I LOVE IT. The photo has a pleasing retro/instagrammy look to it, which is complemented perfectly by the frame, which has bright colors. And I put it on my desk and find myself staring at it and smiling throughout the day! Yay for yucky frustrations turning out wonderfully!
I just bought this same clock for my teenage daughter and she loves it too.
Ooo! I think that’s my clock! I love it, too, except for this one thing it does, and by that I really mean this one thing I make it do but don’t yet know how I make it do it.
Where I live, summer is the Season of Depression and I would definitely run with any sort of appliance love affair at that point.
I think that’s my clock. It is very nice. I had to move it to the guest room for visitors and I miss it. I now rely on my phone for time/alarms as I refuse to deal with the hated (HATED) clock on the husbands side of the bed.
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, I totally get the PMS-ing/wrong husband/impossible children AND the love for a clock. I had one similar and loved it until my husband knocked over a glass of water onto it in the middle of the night. I despise the one I have now and it’s ALL MY HUSBAND’S FAULT. *sigh*
I have this clock. It was some quirks:
1) It becomes “fast” – getting between 7-10 minutes ahead over the course of a few months. Then I re-set it and it’s back to normal.
2) It does daylight savings a day early.
It makes me strangely happy that you actually bought a new clock radio. Everyone else would have me believe I’m the only person still using one. But WHY would anyone want to wake up to a cell phone alarm every single day?? Waking up before the sun is hard enough. Being woken by THAT just makes it worse!
I absolutely love that you went to visit your clock. Love.
Wow.. Add, “and everyone at work needs a good smack but at least I found this great deal online” to the end of that first sentence and you’ll summarize precisely 3/26ths of my life.
“PMS is just the harsh light of truth that mother nature sheds over our lives once a month”. -Sarah – I love this. I have totally been saying this for years – and getting scoffed at by the person I married who is also completely wrong for me.
OK, the overly bright clock radio may be what I’m looking for for our bathroom (if it’s bright enough that I would not need to turn on a light during nocturnal visits, PLUS I would know whether upon returning to bed I should burrow in or brace myself for a soon-to-come alarm . . . from my cell). So could you spill the detailed on the Hated Timepiece?
It’s a Timelink brand from Target, and each number is a different color. That is, each number POSITION is a different color: “the last number is always yellow,” as opposed to “all 8’s are yellow.”
Heh. I agree that it’s both. I mean, yes it is PMS, but also, today, my three-year old daughter broke a small stone dish she loved by deliberately throwing it off the table and then sobbed about it for half an hour. Also, she cut off a hunk of her hair (and came to tell me about it with this sort of “let’s see what will happen” smirk. Which is why all I could do was laugh and laugh when, before I had a chance to react, her dad walked through the front door and she immediately ran for the trash can to dump the evidence and then came to hide her head in my lap. I’ve never in my life used “Wait until your father gets home,” but I guess maybe it’s intuitive).
Is it possible to pass one’s PMS on to the rest of the family? Because sometimes I think the time I’m feeling the worst is always the time everyone else is being a turd.
i cannot tell you how many times i have said “i hate everyone and everything” in the past few weeks. oy.