Life As an Afterschool Special

After a post I made on the Rumor Forum, my friend Dawn sent me an IM saying that I handle feeling out of control the same way she does. Surprisingly for those of you who know me, she did not mean that we both say that we are fine until we believe it, then have a few big girl drinks and a piece of dark chocolate and find a man to flirt with until we feel better.

I have grown.

Now, I cook. I clean. I know.

This weekend, after feeling like all things in life we out of control, I cooked. I had my small group over on Sunday and made dinner for all 15 of them. I know! I had to make a ton of phone calls to figure out what I was doing, but I made tacos and burritos with both chicken and meat.

I had to call three people while at the grocery store before someone answered and told me how much meat you use to make tacos and burritos for 15 people. I had five pounds of meat, and a bag of chicken breast.

Then I realized I didn’t even know how to cook chicken without using a George Forman grill. So I made more phone calls. (Apparently you can use a skillet fry pan thing)

And then I made cupcakes! Which turned out really well, although I thought I could make them without a cupcake pan, and when informed by the people I had text and called that I indeed did need a cupcake pan and not just the paper cupcake holders, I had to go to Susie’s to borrow a pan.

But I cooked. And I did a good job. And cooking made me feel better.

Then I cleaned. A lot. I hate cleaning. I hate cleaning so much I have hired someone to clean my house before (although there is more to that story).

It started with feeling like everything was out of control and feeling like if there weren’t Subway wrappers on the floor of my car my life would be better. So I cleaned my car.

Next I cleaned my house. I scrubbed my floors. I dusted. I fluffed pillows. I rehung pictures.

After that I tackled my room. My room was a disaster zone, but I cleaned and dusted. It wasn’t even surface cleaning. I cleaned under my bed. I even cleaned out my makeup drawer.

But the most satisfying thing I did was clean out my closets and make sure all the hangers face the same way again and arrange my clothes by color. I went through clothes and shoes and accessories and then went to Plato’s closet and sold things I hadn’t worn in a while.

I felt better. I felt organized. And I am not saying I am fine and its easy and everything is perfect, but at this exact second, I am feeling a little less overwhelmed.

So, I think Dawn is right. Cleaning and cooking may be my new coping mechanism. Because I am pretty sure if I can control my closet, I can start to control my life.

How do you cope with feeling out of control?

(See how interactive I am trying to be)