overanalyzing my day

how many time lines are there?

I am curious to know what part of the population would consider themselves over thinkers. We all live in our own heads and have thousands of cogitations per day. I could do some research on this to actually add some real insight to this post and to be honest, I did, but I have no idea what is most reliable because every source gives insanely different variations of numbers and ideas. Most of the time research isn’t this varied, but it is probably so all over the place because we have no idea how our brains really work other than maybe cellular biology and some level of cognitive function. (Don’t quote me on that because I have no idea what I am talking about.)

We spend most of our days thinking and even when we do small actions, we must think without realizing it. I must think about having a drink of water because I am thirsty, but how much did I actually think about the action of picking up the glass and tipping it back into my mouth? Probably not much, but we still do.

I have been thinking about thinking a lot lately. How am I thinking? Why am I thinking? Am I thinking enough? Am I thinking too much? What if I thought differently?

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I’m writing this in my hotel bed after a long day of strolling through New York City. My day consisted of waking up and applying makeup for nobody other than myself, putting on a J-Crew sweater that is too short for my long torso, and walking a block to pick up a to-go hot chocolate and breakfast bowl. My dad got a coffee and a smoked salmon bagel. Normally I would try whatever it is he picks, but I am not a fan of smoked salmon.

I have been sharing a hotel room with my parents; my mom has to work in the office during the day. After we ate, Dad had work calls in our hotel room, so I went for a stroll and made an important forty-five-minute phone call. I walked around the same square of the city about six times and then finally took a different direction.

One of the many things about my life that you may or may not know is that my whole family, well the three of us, are in the travel industry. With that being said, we are fans of trying different hotels. Around 2 p.m., we checked out of our hotel, walked across the street, and checked into a different one, the one that I am currently lying in. This hotel is cozy but much smaller, with less natural lighting.

I left to go for another walk and to look for some stationery around 2:30 but went into several uneventful stores. I find stores melancholy and overwhelming when I realize that I am the one who has to pay for everything, but I did inevitably make a purchase. If you made a purchase over a certain cost, you got a little token to put in a claw machine. I suppose the girl who checked me out happened to like the conversation I made because she gave me two extra. I figured I would repay the good deed and give the girl who lost at the claw machine in front of me one of the prizes that I won.

The checkout girl insisted I try the new frozen yogurt shop next door, so I went. It was good, but I paid a whopping fifteen dollars for a cup. Yes, one-five. No froyo is that good. I picked up some bottles of water, went back to the hotel, and took a nap.

My dad woke me up to get some dinner, so we took the subway to a pizza place with a very long line that we ultimately decided to wait in. We got ice cream after, both of us sampled two different flavors each, and we did not pick any of the flavors that we tried. It’s nice for the two of us to spend time together, and we weren’t quite ready for the night to be over, so we searched Google Maps for a coffee shop. Everything was closed except for a little place, but they weren’t even serving coffee anymore except straight espresso, so we got some mocktails. My dad and I spent thirty dollars on zero-proof drinks that we didn’t even like. I am pretty sure the barista spilled an entire container of matcha in my drink because my mouth tasted like I ran through the forest and licked a bunch of trees.

desert and forest

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If I just thought more about what I was doing today, I may have gone to a different store for the water I got in the afternoon. I may have disregarded everything check out girl said to me and forgotten about the frozen yogurt. I may have saved a lot of money. My dad and I might not have waited in line for pizza and could have avoided getting those drinks all together.

What sort of value am I placing on certain items, actions, or statements that people say? Would I have gone to get frozen yogurt if it was a random homeless man on the street telling me to try it? Did I go because I was really in the mood for something sweet or because she told me to? What percent of each was it?

Overanalyzing everything can surely be dangerous, but not analyzing things might be even worse.