what a waste

i started this morning on a not-so pleasant note. a phone call, some tears, some sighing, a lot of frustration, and essentially no answers. and no, this has nothing to do with the customer service from comcast, the USPS, or some other entity that has proven itself to be a pain in my rear.

the day has looked up a bit since then, and though i don’t like to wallow in the negative (but tend to on some occasion anyway), it got me thinking about other vexing tendencies:

• wasting food.
• wasting money.
• wasting money on bad food.
• wasting time. (there’s a stark contrast between wasting time and leisure time.)

and then after i compiled this list, i realized, ‘wow, i have a huge distaste for waste.’

ingrained from my younger days, wasting food was clearly a no-no when my parents made me sit at the dinner table till bedtime, while an unappealing entrée sat untouched. i’m happy to announce that i don’t waste food at the dinner table any longer, but naz and i are still battling the rotting produce syndrome. at least composting makes us feel a bit less guilty.

growing up less than privileged coupled with the reality that handouts from the government won’t exist in 40 years, not wanting to waste money comes with the territory. but also not wanting to save the best till last, we do an upstanding job of balancing out the here-and-now occasional splurges without completely blowing our wads. because really, what if 40 years from now doesn’t exist? where’s the fun in that?

i.hate.wasting.money.on.bad.food. seriously. i can’t stand it. this should actually be number one on my list. there are way too many great restaurants in this city and having a husband who is a stellar cook, there’s absolutely no excuse for bad food. what’s actually worse would be wasting time while waiting in line to waste money on bad food. that would be the ultimate slap in my face.

wasting time stems from the fact that i have too many hobbies. granted, i only direct my attention to one hobby at any given time, but if i had all the time in the world, i would attempt to tackle more than one and maybe even add a few additional ones. let’s face it, though, we all say ‘if only…’ and in the end, loiter about, wishing for more time instead of utilizing what we do have. this habit is a difficult one to conquer, but as long as i can knit and watch TV simultaneously, i’ll barely escape the waste factor.

06 October 2009