Panic! at the Bed Bath & Beyond

Choices overwhelm me.  Today, the objective was to go to Bed Bath & Beyond and look for Tupperware.  I needed some boxes to serve as lunch boxes for when I spend the day away from my apartment, and some to serve as storage for when I cook ahead for multiple days at once.  The lunch box Tupperware needed to be long and thin so as to fit into my backpack without an awkward bulge, and at least one of them needed to include a container for salad dressing.

This should not have been a stressful venture.

Of course, I walk into the store and the wares are piled high to the ceilings, which tower over me.  Usually I'm on the side with the beauty and health products (which are surprisingly cheap at BB&B), but the kitchen stuff was on the other side so I was already off my game.  All of the Tupperware were in a corner and there were multiple brands with multiple offerings, and there are commercials playing all around me, and a woman bumps me with her shopping cart, and then my mother calls me and pressures me to make a decision about what bed frame to order NOW before I move in (and I'm already disoriented because earlier in the day I had to replace my beloved iPhone which was stuck in headphone mode so it's really just a blank empty box with my imported contacts)...

I didn't have a panic attack.  But I really thought I was going to.  I kept saying hold on, just wait a minute...explain that again...but nobody would wait.  But this time I wasn't going to let it happen - I was going to be in control.

I took a lot of deep breaths.  I walked away from all the Tupperware and picked out a vegetable peeler.  I felt the banana from my lunch smoothie calm me down.  And I moved forward to the task at hand.

Later tonight I returned home with my Tupperware (2 different bistro boxes, and 2 different sizes of regular long, thin Tupperware), made a giant casserole dish of Southern mac&cheese, and watched a Christopher Guest movie with my parents.  As I'm looking ahead through a few days of packing, I need to remember to simplify, and not to let the little decisions get the best of me.  Life will go on as scheduled if I leave the wrong sweater at home.  Or if I bought too much Greek yogurt for the amount of breakfasts I'll be eating in this house.  Or if I bring too many hangers with me.

Stay with me as I let go.