Sometimes, it's just hard to be me.

Do you ever drive yourself crazy? I'm talking on the verge of having an argument out loud with yourself. Certain aspects of my nature--that work quite well in some areas of my life--cause significant problems in other areas.

For instance, I am incredibly picky. Stupidly, outrageously picky. (And yet, I can be so laid back in many ways...how does this happen?) The pickiness works well when it comes to grocery shopping--my kids know they can't have many foods that contain hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup* and they know these things are not good for their bodies. Not only does this raise their level of nutrition, but it also cuts down on the arguments we might otherwise have. When the kids ask if we can buy a certain cereal/treat/whatever, I get to say, "Well, let me read the ingredients...uh oh...hydrogenated oil...sorry, sweetie," and they don't put up a big fight.

But sometimes, I can get in such a picky mood that nothing works for me. I'm talking about normal, everyday life stuff.

We had to buy a new refrigerator recently. Normally, I spend a good couple weeks to couple months researching, analyzing, and just plain deciding what I want for a major purchase like this. Without a working fridge, I had to ramp up the process. What struck me as I looked at all the options (freezer on top? freezer on bottom? water through the door?) was that in general, I just didn't like any of the fridges. I don't like the weird texture of the outside. I don't like the freezer on top, because then all the produce is out of sight down by the floor. I don't like side-by-sides, because the freezer is a nightmare to organize (this is what we had) and there's no room for anything really big in the fridge. Bottom freezers solved both of these problems, but then all your frozen stuff is lumped into a big pile. Whatever.

The best thing to come out of this process is that I realized, once again, that I just don't like the way many things are designed; so I finally figured out that I have to choose the option that will bug me the least. It's still going to bug me, all right, but not as much as the other choices. I've let go of trying to find something that I truly like, and made peace with the fact that this is just the way I am. There are many, many times that I would change myself if I could. Most of the time I can't, and I just have to deal with it. At least now we have milk and yogurt again.


*Have you seen the ads now PROMOTING high fructose corn syrup??? Read this article for a great rebuttal:
http://mygreenside.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/high-fructose-corn-syrup-yes-it-is-that-bad/