I've never been a routine person, as much as I needed to be. I faced my inadequacies plenty of times in my twenties and now my thirties, wanting to kick myself for not sticking to the things I actually needed and wanted to do.
One night, after a libation of choice following a long day of everything you could possibly imagining happening, I thought - why don't I just put on some ...library music .. (?) while I get some work done? It was dark, there were soft ambient lights glowing, and my brain turns up at 8:00 PM like it's Showtime at the Apollo. And boy, a time was HAD.
Enjoying my little makeshift vibe, I decided I'd do it again the next time I needed to get something done. And it worked - better ideas, more enjoyment, and it actually made me exercise my imagination, something that gets abandoned once you're a responsible adult. Like DAMN, maybe the super aesthetic YouTube girls were onto something.
Around the same time, I had gotten into cooking every night instead of meal prepping (because watching your prepped chicken slowly wither away loses its appeal fast), and the dishes obviously piled up once I was done. Again, after a libation of choice (this time in liquid format) I thought: "why don't I just imagine I'm doing closing shift at a bar?"
I found the music and bar sounds to match, and lo and behold, I was actually looking forward to closing up my nightly bar.
One thing led to another. Soon I was envisioning myself writing in a nighttime cafe corner for my business, or doing opening shift at a luxury Italian bed & breakfast to make sure I washed laundry every day. All I needed were a pair of headphones, a playlist to look forward to, and a vision.
As unhinged as this sounds, it genuinely makes my routines more enjoyable. Romanticizing your life doesn't have to be matching pajamas and fancy eye patches you can photograph yourself in. Sometimes it's just deciding you work at a nighttime cafe, and you have to get prepped for the next day.
It also helps to have a libation of choice. But again — of choice.
See ya in delulu land,
Kaila
