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mental health, part I: a final answer

It's a constant state of confusion in here. In thought I go from one extreme to another and it's often hard to sort out what's left in the end. Sometimes, what I need is a final answer.

I'm making tea and I step on "The Foot Book" and think, I should clear this clutter. I'm checking the mail and I notice the grass growing from inside my cedar bushes and I think, I either need to pull that grass or pay someone else to do it. I sit down to enjoy my tea and write a few words and I think, I should be cleaning her playroom.

Having a high level of introspection doesn't do any good if I can't focus myself enough to actually draw a conclusion from it.

As soon as my little girl wakes up, though, then all that ends. I've learned how to give myself a task (sometimes randomly, if I'm unable to come up with a decision) and follow through with it. And I employ this as a rule whenever my daughter is awake and in my care. Otherwise, the confusion in my head only carries over to her.

Those that see me regularly and both with and without Celeste must see a strange duality in me. And now you can see it too. Fun huh?

Doing some research I found that even the lowest of the platform beds I can find hold the mattress at a height of 12". My frame and box springs currently sit at about 14". 2" is not really going to make much of a difference. At least not enough to make it worth all of this trouble. So I'm either going to stick with what I have or build something of my own out of 6×6" posts and a set of IKEA bed slats. I'm trying to find a way to mock up my plan so I can test it out before buying the material to see if it's too low.

Sometimes, having too many options is a bad thing.

Consider the husband and wife who have no options other than one another. Due to circumstances, whatever they may be, if they separate, their happiness, stability, finances, and social standing will all be worse off apart than they are together. That couple stays together. Period. That couple makes it work. That couple figures it out. Because there's no other place to go and all they have is each other. You throw in another option for either of those people, and the whole game changes.

All of this talk of projects reminds me of a few things. I still haven't painted the base boards for the living room. It's like a 30 minute job and I haven't done it yet. I've been putting off doing it with Celeste around: paint, heat, manual labor, and a toddler just won't mix well for me. I know myself well enough. And when I finally get time without her, I'm too busy with other things. Which is why the new "stay home more" plan is a really good lifestyle change. Important for sanity.

Thinking about the flooring reminds me that Costco is currently having their flooring sale again. $8 off each box, which is a really good deal. Before all of this talk of selling houses and renting houses my plan was to buy enough hard flooring to finish every surface in my house the next time it went on sale at Costco. Now I'm not sure if it'll just go to waste. I know I need to do at least two of the rooms. So that's a start, I guess.

Thinking of the house reminds me of the fact that I'm about a week a way from finalizing my refinance here, which might be a really bad idea. I save about $120 a month, which is awesome. And rates are going back up, so if I don't do it now, I miss a window. But, at the same time, due to loan costs, if I try to sell this place in less than 3-4 years after refinancing, I actually end up worse than I was before, cost wise. So deciding to refinance is really like deciding to stay her for at least five years, which is the same as deciding to put Celeste in school here.

I hate my head sometimes.

And maybe renting this place out was never an option to begin with. The guy that came to see it had said he'd call yesterday to let me know what his family thought about the place. I never got a call.

Like I said, sometimes having too many options is a bad thing. My life might be easier and I might be healthier if I simply forced myself to make a choice and then stuck with it. In certain cases, reevaluation is okay after some time to make sure nothing better is being missed. And, in most cases, these choices won't be able to walk away from me.

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  • You might find "The Paradox of Choice" [http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/0060005688] an interesting read.

    It discusses how living in a culture that puts high value on having many choices, maximum customizations, and availability of fallbacks degrades quality of life because of the mental and emotional tax required to process all of the available options.
  • That does, indeed, seem to be right up my alley. Thank you for the
    recommendation.
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