It Baffles Me

Of course there are many things that can pop up in a person’s life that are hard to understand. I do realize this. But there are several things in particular that I’m struggling with right now.

It’s not just me either. On my morning radio show, one of the hosts shared a story about riding on the subway. The car he was in was practically empty, but one woman came and stood so close to him that he felt like his personal space was being invaded. The only other person in the car was chuckling as she could see he was clearly perplexed about why the other woman was so close. Sometimes people are just not self aware.      

In my world, we’ve been trying for quite a while to figure out how to make our backyard more comfortable to hang out in. We have a deck that needs to be redone; we’d like the stairs to lead straight into the yard instead of leading down in a roundabout way from one side. 

I thought I’d give ChatGPT a chance to offer us some suggestions, so I took a photo of the yard and fed it in, asking, “What can I do to make my yard more appealing?” It came back with a much nicer photo of our place with some shrubs, mulch, and a pergola sitting smack dab in the middle of the yard. 

That in itself was actually pretty helpful, because we would like to have some sort of structure that would provide some shade, but a pergola? I don’t understand the idea behind such a thing. Think about it. There’s no solid roof, just boards that crisscross each other. Sitting under it offers you a bit of shade on your shoulder, but then an inch down, you’re in the sun for several more inches, and then another bit of shade for about an inch around your elbow. What are we doing with this? It’s like someone was constructing a building but decided not to put a roof on it, but maybe we’d like a little bit of roof. I don’t get it. 

When I mentioned my confusion to my husband, he reminded me that there are covers for pergolas. 

Right. 

So why wouldn’t we just put up a building with a roof then? I still don’t get it. How does one prepare with their sunscreen for such a place?  

This got me thinking about other things I don’t understand. Like, what are we doing with the shirt half-tuck, ladies? It’s like we don’t want to commit to fully tucking in our shirts, but we want to look like we made an effort, so we just tuck in a side of our shirt. It screams that in our attempt at getting ready that day, we decided, meh, I could go either way. 

Am I guilty of the half-tuck? Of course I am! I don’t want to look like I’m too uptight with a full tuck or too sloppy with no tuck. Honestly, I can’t wait for the half-tuck to take a hike. I’ve got nothing against a “meh” attitude, but I’m quite ready to commit to being done tucking at all. 

The other thing I’m baffled by is my own personal need to stay up as late as possible, although I get up quite early. Each night I settle into the couch, and the later it gets, the lower I sink, until it’s almost impossible for me to even imagine moving from my spot to get ready for bed. 

I know I’ll be better rested if I get up and head to bed at a decent time, but there’s a nagging thought that pops in every now and then - what if I get to bed and can’t sleep? Better not chance it. I’ll just stay here where I’m nice and comfy, until I’m so bleary-eyed I’m certain I won’t have any issues falling asleep. Makes perfect sense, right? 

These are just a few of the oddities my brain can’t seem to wrap itself around. Now that I think about it, I should probably also figure out why mailing things seems like an insurmountable hill I don’t want to attempt to climb. All you have to do is head to the post office, and someone will help you with whatever the issue seems to be. I may not be mailing things because when I have the chance to, I’m too busy settling in for a nap. 

Which might have something to do with how late I stay up each night…Interesting.