(with thanks to mimi for starting this off!)
After all, you have plenty of choices…
you can be classic,
formal,
informal,
encouraging,
testy,
optimistic,
whimsical,
badass,
or simply honest.
At some point this past week, I snapped.
No, I didn’t pitch a fit or indulge in violence, I just… gave up.
My job is hellish. The stresses and strains and continual changes of This Covid Life are affecting everyone - and few are handling it well. I’ve got literally twice the amount of work on my plate than a year ago but am still expected to complete it in the same amount of time, for the same (not-entirely-adequate-to-start-with-altho’-I’m-thankful-to-have-a-job) amount of money, and by the way, now *I* have to just be understanding when coworkers yell at me, because they are under a lot of pressure. Not a peep about telling them they shouldn’t yell, of course. No, the onus is entirely on me to understand how hard things are for them.
Uh-huh.
You would think (especially if you know me in real life) that that statement would have resulted in a startlingly vivid demonstration of just how much pressure I’ve been under myself, thank you very much. But actually, rather than an explosion, my reaction was more like the hissing of a pressure cooker that just had its valve released. One long, steady, sharp drop as every last bit of feeling seeped away.
Basically, I’ve been bludgeoned into apathy.
Which I'd hate... if I cared.
The day started with a person who misspelled her own name and then pitched a screaming fit at me because her login didn’t work — and it went from there.
Yeah... long day.
Coming home, I had just gotten to the busiest stretch of highway when 3 different cars all started weaving in and out of lanes at over 80 mph, because the 75 that the rest of us were doing simply wasn’t good enough.
Unhappily, it was also at precisely that moment that I got a snootful of ragweed pollen and began to sneeze.
Violently and repeatedly.
Cars whizzed by as my life tried to pass before my streaming eyes. (Seriously, have you ever tried to keep your eyes open while you’re sneezing?)
Eventually, however, the sneezing stopped, the mad weavers were nothing but blurs on the horizon, and the rest of us continued along our zippy-but-otherwise-sensible ways.
Several minutes later, as I gratefully reached my exit, happy to be leaving the madhouse and oh-so-thankful the danged day was over, I realized I’d completely forgotten about the haircut appointment I was supposed to be at in five minutes…, 13 minutes back the way I’d come from on the highway.
*grumble, grumble, grumble*
But, you know what?
Where I get my hair cut is in a lovely tourist destination town along the coast, with excellent seafood shacks that look out over water. (Some look out over a river, some over ocean inlets, but a pretty view is a pretty view, right?)
So I decided to make lemonade and turn that miserable (tho’ sneeze-free!) back-track into a mood switch. Me ’n’ my newly-shorn head went to my favorite shack, ordered the fried shrimp plate with sweet potato fries (and slaw!) and sat at a picnic table to watch the dying light play over clouds and water while I listened to the clang of distant halyards slapping in the wind. My mouth was happy, my eyes were happy, my ears were happy. My last nerve welcomed back several of its recently-departed brethren.
SO much better!
Really, I thought as I drove home again, along the scenic road this time, the only thing that could make this evening better is ice cream… So I swung by Dairy Queen and got a caramel apple pie blizzard!
Water views and food comas - best way to end a wretched week EVAH!
