Getting a reboot

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Mine! Go away!

“It’s a hot mess in there!”

I had worked for over forty years so when I retired, I was ready. There are a very few things I miss though. I don’t miss all day budget meetings or constant conflict. I don’t miss the excessive “word smithing”  during executive meetings to redefine our purpose or telling an employee they have to shower more frequently. Nope, none of that.

I miss the people. I get energy off of people. That sounds odd coming from a professed non-people person. I don’t like a lot of “peopleness.” Just enough to inspire me to write about them (or make me laugh). A little goes a long way. During this lock down I’ve noticed that without people interaction, I don’t have as much inspiration. I feel stale. I wouldn’t make a good hermit. My writing would get dark.

I don’t miss their opinions either. Good lord! There are enough of those floating around. Most of them are bull poopy (unless, of course, they agree with me!).

I love the unique vernacular that people use and the energy that surrounds them. Especially the upbeat people. Only the upbeat people!

On Sunday I posted about the craziness going on at Starbucks because of lack of staff. It’s really bad planning but we’ll call it a staff shortage. Most bad results are bad planning but we find something else to blame.

Yesterday (Tuesday), which can be a busy day at Starbucks (I have no idea why), I had to wait despite my pre-order. I waited next to a young woman. She was in her early twenties, quiet, nicely groomed and very patient. No shifting legs or sighing (like my own self!).

We got our drinks at the same time. As we walked out almost together (trying to distance) I made a comment similar to “there must be a fire sale going on.” She laughed and said “It’s a hot mess in there!”

In that second I adopted that phrase. Sure I’ve heard it before but not very often. It’s not something the beloved husband would say, nor any of my geriatric walking partners. I wouldn’t hear it in a doctor’s office or at my dentist. It’s unique to a younger demographic.

It’s also the energy she had. It made her attractive. She didn’t complain about health issues. It’s her take on a temporary situation. She said she comes in every day but I don’t remember seeing her before. (I don’t notice much before coffee!) Now I’ll recognize her as the upbeat woman who knows a hot mess when she sees one!

46 thoughts on “Getting a reboot”

  1. Hot mess! Every time I sit down to create something it goes through a “hot mess” stage. Where I can’t decide to throw it out and begin again, or persevere with it. I don’t know where I first earned this phrase. Finding reading the comments very interesting (as I usually do, but this time more than most).
    2020 is a hot mess, for sure.

    Deb

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      • I check now as I’ve come across a few sayings that I’ve had to remove. So many words and phrases have double meanings anymore. A few weeks ago Joni (The Homeplace Web) wrote a post and used a word I’d not seen before – it was actually a Latin abbreviation she’d used at work. I Googled and saw the meaning in “Urban Dictionary” and I commented to check her word – she did and removed it.

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  5. Hi, Kate – I get this completely! When we retired to Seniorsville (our section of Vancouver Island), I immediately noticed two things.
    1) (And I can’t state this enough) I LOVE retirement.
    2) Where did all of the young people go? I miss them and their energy. (Not enough to go back to work, but still…..)

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  6. I miss the energy I used to get from working with my third graders and the younger teachers on my team. I don’t need a lot of interaction, because I am pretty happy with my somewhat introverted self – but being around others does keep things more interesting. Love the phrase – my BFF and I use it all the time and have for years especially during our teaching careers. It described everything from a decision made by our administrative staff, to challenging students, to obnoxious co-workers, and everything in between! 😂

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  8. I totally get this, Kate. It’s about the energy you got from that one interaction with a stranger. That’s precisely what’s been missing in our lives now; those moments of shared spontaneity. It’s nice to have a glimmer of it, isn’t it? BTW, I don’t miss the wordsmithing either. A former boss of mine would regularly mangle the English language, and it was hard to redline every single sentence! – Marty

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    • I would do a lot of eye rolling in meetings. That’s just before I banged my head on the table! I do miss that. Even the little bit from the gym or the walking group was enough but I didn’t get the current phrases the young’uns are using.

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  13. The hot mess identifier is the perfect description of these times. As a fellow non-people retiree, watching people stroll by or at the park constantly reminds me I’m not missing anything by not interacting with them. Clearly the craziness of COVID has highlighted very self-absorbed brattish behavior more than I thought possible, among young and old. *sigh*

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  15. I miss encountering a person who is overwhelmed with enthusiasm about – “finally”- some projects’ breakthrough – stuff that will impact people’s lives on a brand scale. Topics and experiments usually read in books or journals. That energy is infectious and motivating. More than “what’s for dinner”
    That phrase is pretty popular right now with the younger career/college set.
    It is an old phrase that hath risen again (last word rhymes with “rain” – like Scarlet would dramatically exclaim). I was surprised and smiled to hear it coming out of younger mouths instead of frazzled women who lived before AC….It always reminds me of what the kitchen was like when mom canned fruits and veggies in summer – she started early, but all that steam in an enclosed room.
    They say a cool front is coming (cool-ish by the time it arrives here end of next wee – but we’ll take it)
    Maybe people will stir and get back outside…even at a distance we can shout at each other. Always entertaining….we’ve all rediscovered pantomime.

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    • Canning with my mom! We would end up cracking open a beer can just to keep us going. Then we would giggle too much but damn those pickles were good. Pantomime, yes! My hearing isn’t great in the best of times. If I can’t read your lips to supplement, I’m in deep doo-doo. (Also an old phrase!)

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  16. I am so glad to be teaching puppy classes since I get to see people at least once a week. And “hot mess” is one of my favorite phrases. I’ve used it to describe my foster dog when she arrived way too many times!

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    • The local DD which was a block from SB, closed up during the pandemic. Not sure why because they had a following. Some places were owned by people thinking about retirement and the shut down triggered that. It’s sad to see anything close.

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