Maintenance.....

I'm going to let you in on a little secret.......I don't think I'm very good at maintenance.
I'm not just talking about weight maintenance.  
I am saying that I am not good at any type of maintenance. 
Take my car for instance---I am never on time for my oil changes or any of those upkeep things that they say you must to do maintain your vehicle.   Usually, I wait until something breaks or I need the car inspected and then I'm frantically dialing the mechanic.  When the mechanic tells me that this whole thing could have been avoided if I would have this or that.....I promise that next time I will do what I need to do so this doesn't happen again. 
Same thing goes with most things that we are supposed to maintain--like teeth and cast iron skillets.
I go to the dentist when my tooth is throbbing and I just ignore my cast iron skillet.   As I sit in the dentist's chair listening to the drill boring into my head, I solemnly swear that I will never be in that position again....I'll go to the dentist twice a year.  As for the cast iron skillet---I never swore I'd maintain it.  I knew there would be other skillets. 
My remedial maintenance skills revelation came to me a few weeks back when I was searching through a pile of summer sandals that somehow ended up in a huge pile in my closet.  I never found the pair that I was looking for.  Well, I found one of the sandals but God knows where the hell the other one was hiding.  My huge walk in closet was in a shambles....strewn with bags and boxes and clothes and hangers and yes....shoes.
Just 5 months ago, this same closet was a thing of beauty.  In a fit of trying to be more mature and grown-up, I had taken two solid days to clean out the whole damn thing---from top to bottom.   And, when I finished the back-breaking job, I vowed to maintain it's beauty by doing what I needed to do to keep it as organized and lovely as that very day.
Fast forward to my sandal fiasco and it appears I broke my vow.
Now, I suppose I could analyze my maintenance deficiency to death.  Or, I could just say what's really on my mind---maintenance is inconvenient.  That's the bottom line.  I guess I should be ashamed to admit to it but I'm not.  Well, sometimes I am.  And, sometimes I get angry with myself for not putting in little bits of time so that I'm not left with a huge problem to deal with.  But, I'm so used to this behavior that I just come to expect it.  It's not like I don't know I will have to pay the piper---I realize it.  But, to be honest---I don't think about how much I will have to pay the piper or when I will have to pay the piper.  It's not-so-smart behavior for a smart woman of 53. 
It's just like when I stray from my weight maintenance lifestyle.  I know that I should not eat that second piece of that wonderful raspberry cream cake but I do it and then I follow it up with a few chips and some nacho dip.  Then I'm pissed that my dress is too tight.   Then, I vow to stop all this mindless eating and get back on the wagon. 
Do you see a pattern here?

It was a party and there was cake......