Down Eight

Is it just me, or do you often find yourself thinking about things you don’t actually care about? Gua sha, for example. It seems to be having a moment. Here. Rub this stone on your face in a very specific way every day so that, over time, your double chin goes away.

I think about gua sha a lot, weirdly. Should I do it? Does it work? It’s rooted in East Asian healing. Could it, should it matter to me, too? Can it make me better? Change me?

Gua sha: yet another link in the very long chain of evidence that I should quit Instagram. But it’s not just gua sha. My brain often ruminates on things wildly outside my areas of interest, and I think these thoughts add to the overall level of stress, pressure, and anxiety I feel on a daily basis.

And so, I commend my top five brain-eating offenders to paper, stamping them with “IDGAF” so the brilliant woman in my head can quickly release her grip on them when they show up and make room for more thoughts we want to have.

Our next house: I own a house. My husband owns a house. We rent both houses out to tenants and we are tenants ourselves. We have good reasons for this. Our current house, a rental, is fantastic. We constantly talk about (and I constantly think about) how we’re going to buy our next house, increasing interest rates, the out-of-control housing market, our nonexistent down payment, where we’d buy if we could, and on and on and on. No more. I release it. We live here now, indefinitely. The end.

My career path: I cannot tell you how bored I am of thinking about and planning for professional success and growth, which for me, has always been rooted in making more money. My background is marketing SaaS startups, cloud solutions, etc… and, literally, I just yawned. This shit used to get me out of bed in the morning. I loved it. I was driven. A top performer. The goal was CMO one day. So, I promise no one is more surprised than me when I admit that IDGAF about this anymore. I release it. My job is a means to a paycheck that helps support my family. If I didn’t have to work, I wouldn’t. But I have to. The end.

Facial hair: I drive 20 minutes to the place I get my upper lip, chin, and brows waxed. And then I drive 20 minutes home. It costs me over $50 every three to four weeks. And if I don’t go, I spend significant time worrying about or hunting for witch hairs on my face. No more. I’ll go the razor route. If you know me and you have tweezers handy and you see a hair, tell me. Otherwise, mind your business. The end.

Contouring: A dear friend recently gave me a lesson in how to contour. I looked great. Her makeup is always on point. I will use this knowledge once a quarter when I do a whole face of makeup. Otherwise, IDGAF. I release myself from thinking about bronzer and blush and concealer and highlighter and the tribal makeup application techniques. I commit to a daily tinted SPF. The end.

Generative AI: Sure, it’s THE future. But it’s not my MY future. It will change everything, and it changes nothing for me right now. IDGAF about it. Ask me again in 10 years when they’ve started to figure it out and/or when a robot can cook family dinners from scratch using only whole ingredients. And then do the dishes and wipe the counters down. And then do laundry. And then clean the toilets. And then make the beds. And then tidy up the house. And then reorganize the pantry and hall closet. The end.

Next up, what I do GAF about and where I want to spend my thinking power. In the meantime, what makes your IDGAF list?