Maybe you should check the freezer!

As my dear friend and I finally gave our charming children permission to be excused from the table so that they could grace the entire restaurant with their singing and dancing talents (thus causing the restaurant patrons to lose their appetites and their nerves, I'm sure) we continued to savor every last bite of our buritto bowls from Chipotle, for fear that we may only be able to visit this establishment three times this particular week. My dear friend began to tell me about a workshop she had recently attended. (Within these parentheses is supposed to contain all of the exciting and pertinent information regarding this workshop, however, I don't remember any of it (sorry dear friend) so rather than make it up in an attempt to display my intelligence, I'll just skip ahead to the part that pertains to this post. End parentheses.)

As I was saying . . . Dear friend told me that she had been told that the way to rid yourself of irritations in your life, be it people or behaviors, is to write the particular irritation on a piece of paper and stick it in the freezer . . . Wait, just stick with me, I don't want to hear your excuses for exiting from this post, and besides, Gilmore Girls is a re-run tonight, but nice try!

Well, what a great idea! Why hadn't I thought of that? Dear friend had a few case studies to back up this claim, and everything! So guess what I did? Yes indeed, I took my 'happy- little- about -to- get -rid -of -irritations- self ' home and put my two biggest irritations in the freezer. (By the way, if you're wondering, which I am sure that you are, my irritations were people, but I can't tell you who, unless of course I already did.)

So fast forward to the next day, when out of the blue, after months of no contact, who should call . . . Yes, BIGGEST IRRITATION #1!!!!!

Me: Hello, dear friend, I put the names in the freezer lastnight.
Dear Friend: Oh, that's great.
Me: only, guess who called today, out of the blue, after months of no contact?
Dear Friend: No, you're kidding
Me: Uh, no I am not!
Dear Friend: (Who always has a positive answer to everything) Well, (this person) hadn't been thought of for months, so just give (this person) a chance to really freeze, maybe it will take a few days.

Okay, only I don't have a few days because I want to rid myself of this irritation NOW!!! So, being the elementary school teacher that I am, I decide that I am going to go downstairs, reach my hand up into the out of commission ice maker that I threw the pieces of paper in, retreive the pieces of paper, dip them in water, then toss them back into the out of commission ice maker, because, after all, wet paper will probably freeze more quickly than dry paper!!! (Yes, I do Science tutoring on the side.)

SUCCESS, SUCCESS, SUCCESS . . . wet paper really does freeze faster than dry paper because I have not heard from Irritation # 1 since!!!! And on a side note, contact between Irritation #2 became less and less frequent shortly thereafter as well, and is now nonexistent!

So, I have already told you that Gilmore Girls is a rerun tonight (and if you believed me, you are really gullible, because I really don't know if it is or not, I just set my DVR to record and find out later) so you have some extra time . . . put your irritations in the freezer and in a few days, let me know if you also had SUCCESS!

P.S. Just in case you were wondering . . . when I said I took my 'happy-little-about-to-get-rid-of-irritations-self' home, I did indeed also take my charming child home, although I forgot to mention that, so I thought I would clarify because I don't want CPS after me, as that could ruin my career!

Best of Luck!