Stress

Yesterday I called the gym and gave them my two weeks notice. As much as I like their program, I simply can not afford $280/month, and the downtown location makes it hard to get there if I'm at all tired or stressed. It's a long way out of the way from either my home or my work.

I had a tough workout last night (they all are, actually), came home, hung out with The Child, took a shower, and read the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with her. Which was all nice. Because I took a late shower and washed my hair, and because Jeannie will be at an off-site today, I set my alarm back by about 20 minutes.

But this morning I had a vivid stress dream. ( Strange Cars and Winning Knife Fights )

We all got out of there, and that's when I woke up with my neck so tight it hurt. And I heard the sound of pouring rain through my open window. Rain that sounds like that usually means water in my house by the end of the day. I got up 45 minutes before my alarm, verified that my floor was dry, took two Tylenol, and went back to bed. No good. All I could think about was flooding, getting my stuff up off the floor, and all the things I have to do at work today which means that staying home to monitor my floor is not so good an idea. I have the upstairs folks to keep an eye on things. And I'll leave some towels down in the danger spots. The big leaks seem to be fixed; what's left are the minor annoyances.

On the other hand, I did win several knife fights last night, which puts an undercurrent of ferocious satisfaction under the stress.

If folks want to send me good energy today, it would be much appreciated!

Stress, Pt. 2

The Bad News is that most of my day felt pretty much like my morning. There was a huge project due today for which I have been performing primary admin duties. It was a hard push all morning to get all the pieces gathered and in the document. Miss Vicki called me to ask me to do something for her, and when I apologized and said, "The Prioritization document is due today and I'm doing a hard push on that," her response was a curt, "Fine," and she practically hung up on me.

I finished part one by the noon deadline, did some clean-up, then came the rest of the bad news: a task that is the administrative equivalent of Cinderella's stepmother emptying a pot of lentils in the ashes and telling her that if she can sort them by evening she can go to the ball.

In this case, "the ball" was an outing with my father and my daughter to see the Seattle Storm (WNBA) play. For a good part of the afternoon, I didn't think I was going to be able to finish in time. In fact, I was so stressed that I knew that if the wrong person said the wrong thing to me, or laid another demand on me, I might end up in some degree of tears.

But the Good News is that it only required an hour of overtime and I was able to get home mere minutes before my dad arrived to pick us up. And Jeannie - bless her heart - told me to come in late tomorrow morning to make up for the stress and the late night I'm having tonight with my daughter.

We had a great time at the game. I've never watched women's pro ball before, and it was great fun. My daughter yelled herself into a sore throat and had a wonderful time. Now I'm home decompressing while she spends some time with her daddy.

My neck is still a bit sore from the dreams of this morning and the day of stress. A Tylenol PM will be in order at bedtime.

I don't usually start and end my days with Tylenol. . . But this has been an unusual day.

Thanks to everyone who sent the moral support today! It did help to check my email and see the messages there, even though I can't get directly on LJ from work.