I Can Be Hard To Live With

 I'll admit it. Nothing brings out your weaknesses like pressure. The legendary professional golfer, Lee Travino, defined pressure as needing to sink a putt to win a fifty dollar bet when you don't have the fifty dollars to pay if you miss. 

And while most of us wouldn't be crazy enough to get ourselves in that position, at this time last year, nobody would have thought our lives would become so complicated. On the face of it, living by yourself is not unusual. Many of the singles out there are seniors, and there are a fair amount of young people who haven't paired up.

Living alone is one thing. Not feeling comfortable mingling in society is another thing altogether. When you can't join friends for social activities, life becomes monastic, from not having coffee to attending church.

There are obvious drawbacks. Since I'm Irish, I miss having people around that allow me to bore them with my stories and the obvious embellishments I add to almost every tale I tell. We miss the invitations to eat at other people's homes: free food, a captive audience, and conversation, the single male's trifecta.

Most of all, it's the tendency to, let me put this delicately, allow things to slip. As most of you know, I live in a Studio apartment. The size of which doesn't allow me to entertain. It's basically a large bedroom with an attached galley kitchen and full bath. I prefer neatness and admire convenience. Two considerations for where things are stored and what do I need every day, as opposed to maybe I'll need it someday.

My window sills in the bathroom and kitchen are full of containers of things I don't want to have to look for when I need them. Thank mother nature, my dresser fits in my closet, And I store my cast iron cookware in the oven.

Things I do that I wouldn't if I was living with someone.

• Licking peanut butter off the end of the butter knife and then scooping out one more bite with the same knife.
• Leaving the door to the bathroom open when I use it.
• Arguing with Alexa.
• Baiting Alexa to fight with Siri (Australian Version).
• Passing gas and blaming it on the dog. I don't have a dog, but neither Alexa nor Siri is aware of that.
• Using the bed as a credenza.
• Storing Kitchen stuff in the living area.

Sometimes I get a kind of attitude that's not pleasant. Upon further review, It turns out it occurs from overeating my trail mix combo of dry roasted lightly salted peanuts, raisins, and M & M's. Who woulda know'd dat.