Fake It 'Til You Make It

My beau has his own apartment, and I currently share mine with roommates. As much as I love spending most of my time with him over the weekend, I loathe packing. A creature of comfort, I like being with all of my "things". Plus, how can I decide on Friday after work what I'll want to wear/read/listen to/do over the weekend? Thus, I began to dread Fridays, always going home from work & relaxing for awhile before I'd even start getting my things together, and getting over to his apartment later and later every Friday (and typically after at least one emotionally-charged conversation about how much I didn't want to pack). 

Enter this weekend: I was in desperate need of a relaxing, refill-the-well type weekend. By the time I left work on Friday, I had a sinus headache the size of Texas and was daydreaming of take-out Thai food and vegging out in front of the Olympics. But, that one little hurdle to get over -- gathering my things & driving to Northern Virginia. On my ride home, my brain automatically started the well worn path down Negative Avenue. But, then I had a revelation: what if I just didn't complain about it? Didn't dread it? Just went home, put on a few upbeat songs, packed and headed out the door? I did exactly that, and arrived at his door at 6:45pm refreshed and ready for the weekend. 

Since my experiment went so well, I decided to carry this over into other potentially challenging aspects of the weekend. My beau had an appointment with the car dealership at 9am (!!) on Saturday morning, and I needed to accompany him in my car to give him a ride home. I am decidedly not a morning person, but instead of my usual grumbling, I just got up. I got ready, headed to the dealership, and before I knew it we were sitting in a little cafe I'd always wanted to try, drinking coffee and making our grocery list for the weekend. Before noon, we'd accomplished so much, and I wasn't the least bit tired. I was energized.

I also have a little (okay, maybe more than a little) Monica Gellar in me, and feel MUCH better if my personal surroundings are clean and organized. This especially goes for the kitchen. On the rare occasions that I cook, I can become overwhelmed with all the clean-up that has to be done, especially dishes. We had our friends over for fajitas & margaritas last night, and I kept my can-do attitude in play: I did the dishes as I cooked, quickly washed our dinner plates after I cleared them, and had my feet up reading a magazine by 10 after they'd left. 

The result was a happy, productive weekend where I was in a good mood for 99.9% of it. And the secret? Fake it 'til you make it.