EXP ?/??/????

Have you ever kept something past the expiration date? When you opened your refrigerator and realized that “hey, I bought this a while ago,” look down and see it is due time to throw it away, do you? Have you ever been tempted to just taste it and see if it kills you? Most of us, at least those on a budget, will more than likely go on ahead and use that ground beef that still looks like beef but kinda smells like old socks (we just make sure we brown it real good, ha!!!) It got me to thinking, besides food there are many things that can have an expiration date. Friendships, romance, relationships and jobs can all at some point reach a limit where they are no longer useful or beneficial to our needs. So I will ask you again, have you kept something past the expiration date????

Can you all believe I had a gallon of orange juice for more than three years??.........Calm down, calm down, it wasn’t really orange juice, that was a metaphor. But I kept the “orange juice” way past his expiration date. And trust me, the date was written across his forehead. I could see it every time I walked in the house from work and he was sitting there doing nothing. The same nothing he’d been doing all day. When he was late picking me up from work in MY car and especially when I’d look at him and the only thing I could think of was why, why, why? Nevertheless, I kept him in my refrigerator. Maybe I thought that after a while of going bad for so long there would be nowhere else to go but back to his original taste. I mean there is nothing like a fresh glass of orange juice, the sweetness that rolls down your throat is priceless. But at this point the sweetness was gone and I was left with the yucky thick slightly green stuff that comes out when you pour expired orange juice out (for the record, I bought two gallons and forgot about one). As it turns out, orange juice does not return to its original state no matter how long you keep it in the refrigerator. Eventually, I ended up pouring my orange juice down the drain. It was hard at first, but then I realized tada, there is a whole aisle full a new, quench thirsting orange juice that comes in all sorts a flavors and fashions. The world is truly a better place.

Now as I stated before food is not the only thing with an expiration date. So once I threw out my “orange juice” it was a fine time to evaluate some other things in my life that seemed they had reached their end.

When I wake up in the morning the first thing I think of is, why is it morning? Now I am thankful that God has given me the opportunity to live another day, HOWEVER, my problem is what I am left to do with my day. Go to work. There is nothing like going to a job you can’t stand. I was sitting around thinking the other day about it and I wasn’t always like this. I’ve had jobs where I didn’t mind getting up and going, even staying late. And I do not like to stay at work late. But here, I hate walking in the door and hate when I leave because it means I have to return for another day. But yet, I am disregarding the expiration date. It’s for pretty good reasons. I enjoy most of my co-workers and we do have fun together. The ever so popular, it’ll look good on my resume. Lastly, I’m planning on moving to another state so I don’t see the need to start a new job when I’m trying to find one 700 miles away. But I feel kinda bad. I know I’ve reached the end point of this job, the point where I get here and could care less if I forget to do something or that we’re moving to some great new facility. I don’t want to dread the site of my boss walking in the door. I don’t want to have this negative cloud around me. But it’s here almost every day following me around like a shadow. So I’ve decided not to ignore it anymore, be proactive and for goodness sake, find another job.

Next it was on to my inner self. Getting rid of an unnecessary habit. Yes ladies and gentlemen they come with expirations too. At a certain age it is no longer acceptable for boys to pull on pigtails to get a girl’s attention. Picking our noses is highly frowned upon and deemed unacceptable. Running and screaming away crying when we don’t get our way, not so cute after oh let’s say five. But yet again there are the things we do now that we probably shouldn’t do anymore, although some not as obvious as the things I just mentioned. My habit that has reached its bitter end is not answering the telephone. Seems kinda silly to mention it, huh? Doesn’t quite fit up there with beating up homeless people, mocking the handicap or shaking old ladies down for their change. But it is something that serves no true purpose but to further my niche for basically being lazy and in some cases hurt people’s feelings, sorry D.O.C. you know l wub you. It’s not that I don’t like who is calling or feel that what they have to say isn’t worth listening to. I’m just trifling to be honest with you. I’m usually sitting right there and just don’t feel like talking at that particular moment. Or I reject the call and don’t make it a point to see who it was or listen to the voicemail that they left me. But after a while I could see that what I was doing was causing harm and was just plain silly. So there it was plain as day, the expiration date. So, I’m getting much better. Hell, I pay for minutes I might as well use them. For a further explanation on the repercussions of this habit please read Monday’s blog at

http://leslielousentiments.blogspot.com/.

I am trying to clean out my refrigerator on a timely fashion nowadays. Literally and figuratively. So in the future, when I tend to notice that something needs to be “thrown out” and has either reached or passed it’s expiration date, I will no longer hesitate to put it in its rightful place, the garbage. I know this can be hard. Some things we just can’t seem to let go. But nothing lasts forever. And just because we’ve gotten rid of something doesn’t mean that we have to completely forget about it and what it was once worth to us. And some things we never needed in the first place. And I’m ok with that. I’ll take things for what their worth, get or learn what I can from them and when it’s time to move on, I’ll do so. So I’ll leave you with the question, is it time to clean out your refrigerator?