Water bottle neurosis

I'm going to indulge in a bit of whining. Apologies.

So... I had a not-so-very-good day today. It was a truly depressing Monday. I'd tried to make the weekend a healthy balance of work and rest, but I ended up accomplishing far less work than I'd planned and also resting far less than I'd hoped. It also just so happens that Monday is the busiest day of my schedule every week; I have classes and meetings scheduled straight through from 11 am til 9:30 pm. Boo.

By mid-afternoon, I was dragging around campus, wishing for a nap already and wondering how I would accomplish all the urgent tasks competing for my attention (never mind the important-but-not-urgent ones). And then... I realized that I had lost my water bottle.

I realize that this may seem insignificant, but let me assure you that at the time it seemed like a crisis of no small magnitude. From a clinical standpoint, I think that my water-drinking habit could safely be labeled a "fixation."  I drink water constantly, especially when I'm thinking- it's like my brain runs on a water turbine of some sort. I may not make it to the gym very often, and I don't always do a good job of feeding myself or of maintaining a regular sleep schedule, but I am a champion water drinker. If drinking water were all that one had to do to maintain good health, I would probably live to the age of 557 (give or take a few months).

Moreover, I'm a bit particular about water bottles. Specifically, I must have this one:

It can be purchased at Target (in case you ever want to buy me a birthday/Christmas/good-luck-maintaining- your-tenuous-grasp-on-sanity present).

I have used other water bottles, but this model is truly my most favorite ever. Seriously, if you are in the market for a water bottle, stop looking and buy this one. In fact, buy several of it and keep the extras for those (alarmingly rather frequent) emergency instances when you lose your water bottle in a fit of absentmindedness.

That's what I do.

Fortunately, I still have one emergency back-up water bottle on hand from the last time I stocked up, so I won't have to go to school tomorrow in the dreaded-above-all-else state of water-bottle-lessness. The only problem is that I usually keep a small green carabiner hooked to the top of the water bottle, but I'm out of small green carabiners. In fact, I'm out of carabiners of all colors and shapes.This is a bummer. Thank goodness I have my emergency back-up water bottle, though. Now I need to remember to lay in a new supply, since this is the last one in stock.

As you can probably tell, my strategy for dealing with little neuroses like this is to be very honest with myself about the fact that I have them and they're probably not going away any time soon. Denying their existence would merely give them the opportunity to sneak up on me and wreak havoc on my psyche. Honest self-reflection, on the other hand, gives me the opportunity to act pre-emptively in my own defense. Hence the existence of a mental and material category known as "emergency back-up water bottles."