Publisher's Prompt: Returning Takes Too Long

From Nicky

Returning takes too long. Which is why I don’t do it, or I should say, why I don’t do it well.

Dry cleaning is a good example. About twenty-or-so years ago, I never returned to pick up dry cleaning I had dropped off. I don’t know why exactly. It seemed fairly easy to drop off my clothes…but picking them up, well, that just felt overwhelming. Consequently, many of my clothes lay in wait at dry cleaners’ all over the West Side of L.A. Never to be picked up. Perhaps because returning takes too long.

I’ve also been saddled with countless library fees over the years, to the point that I’ve bought several books from various libraries. Picking up the books was easy enough, but returning them…well, returning just takes too long.

The same can be said for when I rent videos, buy clothes that inevitably I don’t really like or don’t really fit, receiving a present I don’t particularly care for with a gift receipt included- they all remain in my care, for the effort seems too great and returning takes too long.

I know this all makes me sound like I must spend money lavishly and that I am one lazy-ass gal. The truth is, I scrape by and am busy working my butt off. The key thing here is, returning takes too long, and I am simply unwilling to put in the time to do what it takes to return.

Luckily, for me (and my pocketbook), I no longer go to the cleaners unless I am sure I am going to pick up whatever I drop off; I rarely go to the library, and when I do, I research there instead of check books out; and I no longer rent videos. Because, for me, returning takes too long.