De-fuse

This post was orginally written on January 6, 2010

Have you noticed this year in particular how people (you know "people") are doing everything in their power to organize. Simplify. Declutter and Gain Back Their Lives? Magazines promise their way of organizing is better than yours. Stores are putting Huge Rubbermaid containers so close to the doors for people to buy that they might as well sell them in the parking lot. What is it about January that makes people want to purge?

• The unhealthy weight-gain from the holidays?
• Is it the New Year and we are supposed to rid ourselves of all our nasty habits of hoarding?
• Or is it the urge to simplify our lives to make things easier on ourselves this year?

Whatever the reason, I too have been bitten by the bug. Just last night I was fit to be tied by John. And rightfully so. I yelled at him. Over a bag of dogfood. Really. Shamefully. I did. I never wanted to be one of those wives. Ok, ok, I'll tell you the story.
I came home yesterday from a pretty long day at the hospital. I cooked some soup for dinner (that you can check out the recipe for here.) Baked some awesome cookies and cleaned up the kitchen. Enter John. With not one, but three boxes of computer parts and equipment. Not only boxes, but boxes filled with styrofoam and "innerds" that amazingly exploded all over my clean(er) kitchen. I did not get mad. I simply let. it. go. Relaxed a little before bed and headed that direction. As I am lying there in bed, I remember. Dang it. I forgot to feed the fuzzies dinner. Luckily, John was nice enough to take care of it.
Stick with me. There's a point to this.
Enter problem:
him: honey, how do you open the bag of dog food?
me: you pull the tab that says "pull here"
him: oh.
I hear a ripping and tearing that can only be the bag itself. I go into the kitchen and realize that he is tearing the bag open.
Turns out the bag was upside down. He didn't look to see if the bag was upside down and in a hurry to get the job done decided to rip it open.
I let him have it. I was not nice. I am one of Those wives. How? When did this happen? Can I make it stop? Is this considered abuse?
 I did apologize to him later. And I am sorry.


Here was my thinking. Next time I open the pantry door that bag of dog food is going to fall over. Dog food will fly across the floor and knowing my luck, I'll slip fall, break my foot (I'm known for that. I'm the clumsy one) and cry over spilled dog food. Not to mention the mess that will need cleaning up, a disabled wife, medical bills and an array of other issues coming from the dog food bag.


So today, as I re-think this story. I believe I need to pick up one of those rubbermaid containers next time they hand one to me at the store. It could save my marriage.
Please tell me I'm not alone. Have you ever yelled at someone over something completely petty? I'd love to know.