The voices in my head are loud

I look at the phone, trying to talk myself into the call I know I need to make.

“I won’t! I won’t!” cries the two-year-old in my head. She is, I’m sure, holding an ice cream cone that’s dripping down one side with ‘splat! splat!’ sounds while making a petulant scowl. “I don’t hafta!”

“It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t do this! Why should I be the one to fix it?” huffs the angermonster who is supposed to be locked up but is actually roaming around, bumping into everyone else. “I will not be the person to take the blame!”

“Are they going to be mad at us?” asks the anxious teeny-bopper from somewhere behind everyone else. She’s already hiding, trying to avoid the consequences that are sure to follow.

“Maybe if we’re really polite, if we’re really sorry, they won’t yell,” says the sunny girl twirling around with daisies clutched in her hands.

They’re all talking at once. The Voice of Reason is, of course, silent.

I did, eventually, pick up the phone.

It’s the end of the world as we know it

All of these are signs of the end of the world as I know it…

I called Comcast and reduced our cable subscription to the lowest possible that still gives me access to “Defiance,” “The Strain,” and “The Walking Dead.” At the end of the call I’d reduced my monthly bill by $85.

I cancelled my Hulu subscription.

I decided to empty out my storage room, which means getting rid of accumulated items that have been sitting in that room for three years.

I am going to share my brother’s Netflix subscription, which means I am going to  cancel mine.

And, oh, by the way, I’m thinking of cutting back on coffee. No, I’m not talking about giving it up completely. My sleep patterns go wonky when I give up coffee. But I’m up to somewhere between 4-6 cups a day. I think I need to cut back a little.

And that’s just the beginning …