Live with your teenage daughter during her gap year, or get a massage every week and 12 new Eileen Fisher outfits?
There is no right answer. . . it’s just your hypothetical choice.
Would you rather . . . is a game that Mabel and I play. Usually when we’re sharing a meal, and often when we’re not getting along. It’s a neutral form of communication and oblique problem solving. Sometimes it’s passive aggressiveness disguised as conversation. And it’s also a way to get to know each other better, because we’re regularly surprised at what choices the other person makes.
For example, I would rather lose all feeling in 3 toes forever, but be able to fly for free anywhere I want to go, and Mabel would choose to smell like peanut butter when she sweats, instead of every time she sneezes, her sneeze spray smells like onions.
I bought a perfectly good plain black nightstand for 3 dollars today. 2 shelves and a drawer. It was at a rummage sale in Inman Park. Mabel will use it. It should hold the nest of backpack/purse/sunglasses/cell phone and computer that’s been lumped on the floor at the foot of her bed since we moved in. That’s the thing about living in a small space. If you’re not fastidious about keeping things picked up and orderly, it can feel like you’re living in a flop house.
Which brings me to a real life ‘would you rather’. Would you rather spend time on the internet filling out forms for casting sites and work opportunities, or be the main person responsible for cleaning the toilets? Here’s how much of a Luddite I am. . . I picked cleaning the toilets. Mabel works her magic on the internet, and I disinfect porcelain.
Cleaning may be the bane of my existence, but you never have to back up your cleaning. . .or update it really (I use the same products and methods to clean things since the Belmont Motel days circa 1970’s). It’s all in the brush really. If someone tries to sell you one of those stiff bristled monsters, just walk away. Anyone in the know goes for the ‘mop’ style of toilet brush. It’s softer and might seem counterintuitive, but the mop type cleans better and doesn’t flick water back at you like those stiff bristled brushes sometimes do.
We hung out at Little Five Points tonight. It’s a nearby hip neighborhood with lots of little shops and plenty of pedestrians. On the weekends it’s always busy. There was an Art Fair happening, with live music and vendors, and there were tables set up for the public to create art. One station had squares paper you could color, and they’d laminate your art and turn it into a magnet, another was blocks of wood you could paint or color, and a third invited you to custom make a button. You cut out a round shape, (using a template) from old magazines, photographs or origami paper, add words if you want, and then it gets put together with a pin backing and pressed into a pin-on-button.
Mabel made a magnet, and 2 buttons and I did a wood block painting and a button. We both agree that we’d like to go back in October when the button lady returns. It was fun.
Would you rather go to an outdoor arts festival in October, or book a paying job? Hmmm. Job please.