Living with an Aries

I'm not all Miss Cleo, but I think there is a lot of truth in astrological signs. I think horoscopes and personality charts are fun to look at even if they aren't 100% true. I think that I highly personify the Aries sign. Every time I see anything that has to do with Aries I think "Yep, totally me."

I think one of the hardest things for Ange to deal with in being my partner and moving in with me is the fact that I'm messy. A lot of this has to do with my being an Aries. It's not that I hate cleaning and having the house clean, but I just don't have cleaning on my priority list. Not. At. All. Minimum cleaning is all I need. Like once a week and it's not even like a top to bottom clean nor is it like a ritual. If something better comes up I'm easily swayed away from my cleaning. I just have better things to do with my life than clean.

The other thing that Ange and I have been trying to work on is the schedule and routine of cleaning. When she comes home, if something is not to her liking she has to take care of it RIGHT THEN. I, on the other hand, would prefer to just not worry about it and take care of it when I feel like it. We're trying our best to compromise on this but it's still a little hard sometimes. I think one of the most frustrating things for me is that she seems to think that I'm just not doing it because I'm lazy. Sometimes I'm lazy for sure, but most of the time it's not that at all. I think people think that I just sit around all day being a "full time student" which means, I live a life of leisure. I wish that was how it was. I am always going, going, going and busy, busy even if it doesn't look like it. My brain works much harder than my body which is why I think people think I'm just being a bum. All day long my brain is churning through things which is physically exhausting. But it's hard to clean that or measure that. When Ange says "I worked 12 hours today!" how am I supposed to respond? Uh, I've thought about a lot of complex shit ever since my alarm clock went off? Hardly convincing, but tiring all the same.

By the time I finally make it home at night, I am usually sooo wiped out. And I usually have more things I need to take care of. The last thing I want to do is clean. In my thinking, that mess is going to be there tomorrow so why do I need to worry about it now? A messy table or a pile of stuff on my dresser does not impact my ability to lay on the couch and watch tv while working on my computer. I understand that she has a compulsive need to clean and that it will drive her insane if things are messy and that she can't rest if she doesn't clean. But I just don't think that means I have to do it. So we've been working on that. The best time for me to clean and do things is in the morning. When I get out of bed in the morning I have a renewed zest for life and I can knock out a bunch of crap 1, 2, 3. But at night? I just feel like death sometimes. I know she thinks I'm being a drama queen but there are literally times I feel like I may collapse if I have to stand up and do anything I'm that exhausted. But I've been trying to help out when I can. Luckily I have the ability to muster up some of my seemingly endless energy and power through some things for 15 minutes so I don't feel guilty that she came home from a day at work and is cooking me dinner. And she is getting better at giving me time when I tell her that I just need to rest for 10 minutes. She'll leave me alone until I feel like I have the energy to go back to our task.

All of this is to say, if you look at a lot of astrological sign stuff you'll see that Aries have high bursts of energy that they can sustain if they are interested in things, but as soon as their interests are not met, they really do shut down. Sadly so far in my life the only people who really believe this is other Aries. Everyone else just really thinks we are drama queens. Such is life.