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Creature of habit looking to live outside the box

In my next life, I’m going to be a wild and crazy woman. This is not to say I’m going to be a flamenco dancer. This is not to say that I’m going to play competitive blackjack.
Barbara Gunn
Barbara Gunn

In my next life, I’m going to be a wild and crazy woman.

This is not to say I’m going to be a flamenco dancer. This is not to say that I’m going to play competitive blackjack.

This is not to say that I will skydive on Monday, ride a racehorse on Wednesday and fly down a luge track on Friday.

I’m going to, oh, be a whole lot more adventurous. By this, I mean that I will patronize more than one grocery store. I will try a different dry cleaner. I will visit another spa.

I know. Wild. And. Crazy.

As it is — and by that, I mean in this life — I am what you’d call a creature of habit. In this life, there is not only one grocery store, there is also just one brand of coffee, one brand of orange juice, one brand of laundry detergent, one brand of bacon and one brand of salsa.

I can’t think outside the grocery box.

The husband’s the same. When he heads off to fill up the gas tank, it would not occur to him to go anywhere but the same old service station — even though there are several in town.

In his next life — if he happens to have a car — I hope he mixes it up a bit.

I hope we’ll both mix it up a bit when we go out for lunch or dinner. As it is, we generally favour the favourite place. We’ll ask for a menu, simply because that’s what you’re supposed to do at a restaurant, spend five minutes looking at it, and then glance at each other.

“You’re having the same old, same old, I’m assuming?” I will ask.

“For sure,” he’ll say.

“Me too,” I will say.

In my next life — or heck, maybe even in this one — I will take baby steps toward the wild and crazy side. Once every half dozen times I go to the favourite restaurant, I’ll have fries instead of salad. I’ll opt for malt vinegar instead of regular. I’ll have a lager instead of a pale ale.

I know, it’s nothing momentous, but it’s a step in the right direction. In lieu of being a creature of habit, I’m aiming to be, well, just a creature.

The vinegar switch I can manage. But the grocery store, not so much.