TISSUE ISSUE

By now you should have realized I have issues . . . MANY many issues. Most are dumb, ridiculous and insane but be that as it may they are my issues.

My latest issue is the problem of tissues in my pockets. I do not have a problem with the existence of tissues but with the fact that I can NOT remember to take them out of my pocket before I wash my clothes. You see, I have this hereditary issue where my nose likes to drain at the most inopportune moments. My dad had this problem, especially in his later years. I remember most vividly sitting across from him at the dinner table and watching the painfully slow drainage of his sinus cavity. First there would appear a small moist area at the outer edge of his nostril. That would slowly get larger until a small drop would form. The drop would then build in size until it began to make its veryyyyyyy sssslllloooooowwwww  oooooozzzzeeeee down his upper lip where just as it was about to begin its formation into a drop where it would fall into his plate Papa Dan would reach into his pocket and grab his handkerchief and wipe that mess away.   Now this must be a part of aging because as Ger was wending his way through his cancer journey he too began the nose drip ritual.  Ooze, gather, roll and drip!  I would like to blame the fact that I have allergies and living in Florida gives me cause to have a continuously running nose but what ever the reason I too must be prepared to play the game.

Unlike the gentlemen who prefer handkerchiefs, I prefer tissues! (Somewhere in the past I have written about that.) So like any good grand ma I am always prepared with a package of hand wipes AND a package OR TWO of tissues. Often I am doling out tissues to friends and family at the movies or mass. They always know I am carrying.
The problem I have is not with the unused tissue but with the tissue that has now been put to use. I have a couple of options. One, throw it out. That's only an option if I have thoroughly saturated the tissue and it can never be used again. It's just wasteful to put one little sniff in a tissue and then throw it away. Think of the trees ! So if I've just sniffed into the tissue I will either put it back in my purse OR, and this is the much more preferable choice, put it in my pocket. If a tissue is in my purse it takes more effort to find it than if it's in my pocket. After all, that's what pockets are for, right ! So, into my pocket goes the tissue and on with my day go I.
At the end of the day I will take off my pants, hang them in the closet or throw them in the laundry, depending on the degree of nastiness and go on with my evening. IF I was smart I would go through the pockets right then and there to empty the pockets but you and I both know that at the end of the day the LAST thing I am going to do is take time to take the exhausting amount of time and energy to empty TWO pockets. I'll remember before I throw these in the wash. RIGHT !

Now I have an entire load of wash with bits and pieces of tissue attached to EVERYTHING. Why is it that when I take a tissue out of the package and go to wipe chocolate off my grand daughters face the tissue falls apart and disappears but when I run it through 3 cycles of wash in a washer it shreds, multiplies and remains in tact so it can cling to every article of clothing in the load? Not only that but it becomes electrically charged so that removing it from clothing results in electric shocks equalling that of sticking your finger in a socket !!