Red-Onesie Moment



Is this not absolutely hilarious yet so unfortunately true?

So, if you have been around me long enough, you know that I have a slight tendency to worry/put on a dramatic performance about absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, this is a weakness of mine, but fortunately, I have wonderful friends and family who love me anyways and help bring "Anxiety Girl" back from her conclusion jumps. One recent "jump" has resided in the back of my mind for the past few weeks, and I feel like there's a lesson to be taken from it.

It all started Christmas Eve. Megan gave me a new WHITE (if you have a person in your life who is the slightest bit accident-prone, DON'T buy them anything white) Coach watch that I absolutely LOVE. I was so excited and naturally wore it the next day on Christmas. Well, Santa has a sense of humor, at least at the McKenzie house, and he brought Megan and I red monkey onesies (Yes, if you are trying to remember- Megan and I are almost 25 and 21). Like I said, sense of humor.

This is the EXACT onesie I have. (monkey feet and all)

So Christmas night, I wore the RED onesie with the WHITE watch and wasn't the yellow in the crayon box to say the least. When I went to take off the watch before I went to sleep, my perfectly white watch now had a pink stain (major monkey business on the onesie's part). Of course, this sent me into a full Oscar-nominated performance as I mourned for my watch and acted like Kim Kardashian when she lost her $75,000 earring after jumping off a pier in Bora Bora. Clearly, someone should have given Kimmy and I a brain for Christmas because you don't wear a new red outfit with a white watch, and you definitely don't prod your monster-sized husband to chunk you off a pier into an ocean wearing $75,000 earrings. Back to the story..

Naturally, the next day I am still trying to get my Oscar and began researching ways to remove dye stains from patent leather (friends, the findings for this research isn't that bright). So I tried a few cleaners, and if you can imagine domestically-challenged me trying to clean a watch, you have an Elmer Fudd imitation. Being Elmer, I was oblivious to the fact that I was driving everyone else crazy (clearly not getting the People's Choice Award) until my sweet boyfriend kindly yanked me from my dramatic, high-horse stage back to reality (the kid has a real talent for this) and reminded me that it was just a watch with one tiny stain on a band that could probably be replaced and nothing to fret about for half an afternoon. Switching roles, Elmer laid down his gun, and Bugs picked up a carrot and began to contemplate the situation.

As embarrassed as I am about my antics, I believe I received a good reminder that day. Life is not going to be a perfectly white piece of patent leather. It's full of stains and blunders that leave marks that can't be erased right away. Yet, it doesn't change who you are nor does it take away from your value. Although the dye left a stain on my watch, it didn't change the fact that it was still a functional watch and didn't take away its signifance as a gift. Also, as my family told me, the stain would eventually fade, but in the mean time, it was up to me how I would view it. Likewise, in life, we can't control the stains or their timing. However, we can change our perspective of the stains and know that they aren't permanent. They may affect us temporarily, but they will eventually fade into the past. We can choose to laugh at the stain and our dumb "red onesie moments," or we can let the meager stain permeate into our lives and rob us of much more than a piece of our band. For me, I'll write this off as a red-onesie moment.