Sometimes in relationships, if you don’t strike when the iron is hot – you risk losing everything.
Getting shoved into the friend’s zone and not being able to find a way out.
Being passed over for the next one to come along.
Missing out on something that could have been great.
I'm pretty sure I didn't strike with enough determination when I should have.
And now, I'm pretty sure I may have lost out.
As some of you may remember, I was in the midst of a little courting over the 4th of July weekend.
Lusting after some new appliances in a way that wasn’t exactly healthy.
Especially for a girl still holding on to a fair amount of baby making debt.
A girl who also just so happened to have perfectly functional appliances already.
Old and run down, but still fully capable of getting the job done.
But those deals over the holiday weekend were calling to me. They were courting me right back. Making promises of a beautiful relationship to come. One destined to be full of stainless steel, zero percent interest, and energy star ratings.
Still, I held out. Determined that if there was really something there; it could wait a few months. We could take things slow. I could evaluate my relationship with my current appliances, and those new ones would wait patiently in the wings.
So of course, as some of you (and even myself) predicted – those perfectly function appliances of mine decided to crap out.
As soon as the holiday deals were no more.
I didn’t strike when the iron was hot, and as such – I got put in the friend’s zone.
Friday night I was doing a few loads of laundry (after having not touched my laundry basket in almost 3 weeks). I knew I had a packed weekend and that it was now or never as far as laundry completion was concerned. So I was powering through in preparation both for the wedding I would be attending yesterday, and the boy’s return from over 2 weeks of being out of town for work.
Which is why the dryer dying only 1 load in (with wet clothes both still in there, and now also in the washer) really put a damper on my entire evening.
And left me in a bit of a panic as I tried to determine where in my very small condo I could even hang all of these now wet clothes.
It was in that moment that I was kicking myself. Had I splurged on the 4th of July, this wouldn’t be happening. I would have clean, dry clothes. Produced by energy star rated machines. A happily ever after sort of relationship.
Instead, I had an elderly machine that decided to crap out at the worst possible moment.
The roommate and her boyfriend were both home, and after some tinkering between the 3 of us – we managed to get it working again.
Kind of.
It’s now taking at least twice as long to dry a load, and I’m living in fear of the moment when it may just die for good.
Which will, inevitably, happen as soon as I am desperately in need of clean clothes again.
Unfortunately – the deals that were in place just a few weeks ago are as of now nowhere to be found. There are still remnants of those deals (10% off here, free delivery there), but nothing as all encompassing as what once could have been.
Leaving me with a bit of a conundrum.
Do I wait it out until Labor Day? Hoping that the current machine will get the roommate and I through until then? And that the spark that was there over the 4th of July will return once more? Bringing with it the plethora of deals that were almost too good to say “no” to when I had perfectly functioning machines, and would now be impossible to ignore given the unreliability of what I’m currently stuck with?
Or do I recognize the error in my ways for not striking when the iron was hot, and simply take what I can get before it's too late and I end up with nothing?
Either way, I think I’ve got myself convinced to only get a washer and dryer for now.
As much as I would like to replace the whole lot, I should probably just start with my needs versus my wants.
And (knock on wood) at this point – none of those other elderly appliances are in need of replacement.
I am once again lusting though.
Hoping only that I can woo back some of the deals that were in place only a few short weeks ago.
And kicking myself for not striking while the iron was hot before.
Long courtships are overrated.
The real trick is to seal the deal.
Quickly. Efficiently. And with determination.
Before you find yourself stuck in the friend’s zone.
Minus the passion. The excitement.
And the 18 months of zero percent interest.
ADSPACE
