-A Life In Boxes

I tend to like knowing where things are. I like being able to find things quickly, I find it useful to have things organized and in their place. This also tends to help me because I seem to be five minutes behind schedule a lot of the time, so not having to search for things makes life easier. I’m not some OCD clean freak, but I definitely support cleanliness and organization. Does my room look like a Gap store? No, but I do have a general idea as to where all my jeans are. Is my bookshelf alphabetized and in numerical order? No, but I can find my favorite book in under twelve seconds. I like avoiding messiness, it seems to make everything flow. To me, having things in their place is like having a good roll of packing tape; it is easy and you avoid wasting time and getting your hands stuck. Otherwise you spend six minutes just trying to find where the tape begins and then wrestling with it to not rip or stick to the box and not to your hand. Having recently moved my entire life from one side of the city to the other, I have gotten very familiar with both boxes and packing tape. I also found out you can bungee cord a mattress to the roof of your car, drive sixty miles an hour and not get arrested. But during the transition from one house to the other my system was royally flunked. Nothing was where it was supposed to be; instead my life was in boxes. I am not willing to admit to how many days I was forced to wear the same pair of boxers, but let’s just say it was more then what is GQ recommended. During this boxed in boxer time I began to think about all the other ways it pays to have organization in our lives. Not only does it save us time while we run out the door, but it also saves us from running in romantic circles.

Appreciating a system and liking to know where things are is not only applied to my bedroom or my bookshelf, it is also applied to my love life. I’m sure you need a minute after having read that surprising tidbit of shocking information….alright, back to the words. I know it seems pointless, but I like having a plan when dating; it’s like the roll of tape. Think of how efficient and timely everything happens when the tape is properly used, and then think about all the time wasted when it is a mess and you can’t find the beginning or the end. It pays to be organized. I have almost reached the point where I would just like to start handing out dating note cards that have simple questions that can be answered by checking the “yes” box or the “no” box. Again it comes back to the boxes. It seems to be impossible to have any kind of organization when it comes to dating, very rarely are things where they should be. Between the baggage, the boxes, and the boxers who has time to play games?

I know that you can’t control everything in your life, and I honestly don’t want to. Some days you don’t even want a system because it has begun to make you feel boxed in. Some days the system and the organization is the only thing that keeps you going. Thank you Bree Van De Kamp and Catherine Mayfair, you teach us so much. But I am beginning to realize that having organization in your closet, in your bookshelf or in your bedroom is helpful because most of our time is spent organizing our relationships. If you don’t know where your toothbrush is, that’s an inconvenience. Not knowing the difference between like you and like you, that’s a problem.

So, you can sort your sock drawer, tape your keys to your desk, you can even bungee a mattress to your car; but will we ever be able to have organized dating? It seems that dating is the one thing you can not have a system for, and you can like that or you can like that. The decision is all yours.