Chores: A short story

It was a cold and gray spring day, and the first thing that is needed to be done is to get the laundry done. Thinking about the rest of the day and how it was going to go, the weather was not helping, one would think that being in So Cal it would be nicer already; global warming at its finest he said to himself. He is a particularly anxious fellow, and it takes quite a bit for him to get started in the morning. Especially from an evening of rain and being woken up by a strange dream about a cat that he did not have. Funny enough, he did want one, but was allergic to them. He got up in the morning and started to get his things ready. This was something learned about dealing with the feeling of anxiety that the goal is to function not to avoid it, he was going to be anxious the whole day and he still needed to wash his clothes. He thought how annoying it was that he didn’t have a washer and dryer in his home, but he has been doing this for a while so it wasn't that bothersome. At least it was cold and not blazing hot, but still his fingers would move slower than normal. He notices that he was getting more anxious thinking about the day; and how much he needed coffee. He also remember that as a kid he would think that having a place with stairs meant you had some money, now as an anxious adult, he understand that having a washer dryer unit in house was much more of an indicator.

He packed his laundry got into the car started praying that he would be safe on his trip, even in small distances it was important to think about safety, now was that his anxiety speaking or his many lessons from his parents long divorced, that were left in his mind, probably both he thought. He starts to drive and starts to play something on the radio not to enjoy but just to have, not that he was paying attention to anything else but the road.

He got to the laundry matt put his clothes in the washer, he set a timer on his phone, just to ensure maximum efficiency of his time there. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the stillness of that and the real sense of equity of all people that went there, everyone needed to wash clothes he thought and he is just like everybody else and everyone is just focusing on their chores not thinking about you or noticing you, this was another tactic that he learned to keep his anxiety at bay. He continued back to his car, just to sit and watch some anime, as to do something with his brain. He thought about the book he brought but something about reading was not appealing, he hadn’t eaten since last night. An episode gone by and its time to take the clothes to the dryer. He puts his headphones in ignores the sounds of the people and hurries to put the clothes in the dryer. He liked this laundry matt there was always an open washer and dryer and place to fold his clothes, even though it was about a mile farther than the one nearest his house, it was better to deal with because he wasn’t worrying about availability or time. Although once he needed to drive even farther because his laundry matt of choice was closed for renovations for one week. What would have been a 2 hour trip turned into a 5 hour shift of looking up reviews, distance, and planning. Just another thing anxiety is like when there is a disruption of routine; while adapting is not the issues it’s thinking about all the options and potentialities that could happen. Anxiety makes one always conscious that things are changing its just making sure he feels safe in those places is the issues. Most people appreciate his attention to detail, but don’t appreciate his presentation of it, something he learned to use in work settings, and was conscious of that he needed to self care afterwards. He learned that the hard way.

While anxiety has it’s workings and also obstacles, he did think that he’d reward himself with a another coffee for himself, it took him so long to go to places alone, and he remembered that his goals was to function not to get rid of it.