Fun-loving Easy-going Make Believe Time

One of my new favorite games is what I call "Fun-loving easy-going make believe time." This is where I tell people that everything is cool. They can come over whenever. Hang out. Eat all the food in my house. Play the Wii. Call me back, don't call me back–whatever.

Most of the time, "Fun-loving easy-going make believe time" and reality are one and the same. People are genuinely welcome to hang out at my house whenever. They can eat whatever they want. They can play the Wii. They can soak up creature comforts and saturate themselves in my consumer goods.

But about 5% of the time I take a trip into crazytown. I don't know it's happening, of course. I don't realize what's going on until I find myself pondering the proper way to explain to my sister that she used the cookie spatula as an egg spatula. (See, the cookie spatula has a nice crisp edge. It has never been used for a non-dessert food. It isn't burned or melted, and it does a fabulous job shooting between fresh baked cookies and broiling hot pans.) I think about when I can get a new cookie spatula since the current one has been compromised. I plan how this scenario could be avoided in the future. I will color code the spatulas and maybe have an orientation when people stay with me. Then I realize there is no proper way to explain to my sister that she used the wrong spatula. Every single scenario makes me sound nutso and not a little obsessive/compulsive.  Because honestly, who has a spatula only for cookies and can't handle it being used once for scrambled eggs? Crazy people, that's who.

This is where "Fun-loving easy-going make believe time" comes in. Now that I know I'm totally insane, I can take a deep breath and pretend that everything is a-okay. I scrap my orientation notes, stop myself from waking up my sister to talk to her about the spatula problem, and go back to thinking of myself as fun-loving and easy-going. I'm the kind of person who doesn't even know where she keeps her spatula! LOL!

The effectiveness of this game is almost alarming. I forget what a spatula is. I forget I was upset about anything. And when I remember, I'll be calm, cool, and collected. Though I'll probably still have to buy a new spatula.