Right Down to The Look on Her Face

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.

In Which I Give Myself a Break

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!

Insults in Space

 I actually find this rather elegant…
(Altho’ that could be my mood!)

Silliness in Space

I’m not out of the weeds at work yet but I’m tired of sounding whiny and cranky.

So this week, I’m not trying to match a meme… 

we’re just going with something that makes me giggle. 

I'm having a hard time deciding what about this makes me smile the most:

the silliness of the take-off,

the absurdity of the thought,

the faint hint of a roguish twinkle in Worf’s eye, or

that moment of “hmmm…” as you pause and actually consider the idea.   (O.O)
oh my...

Really, the whole thing has just cheered me up enormously.

I hope it gave someone else a grin, too. :-)

The Unexpected Appointment

Apparently, my calendar app knows I'm about to blow…

Sleepin' Space

Actually, a good knock-out pinch sounds pretty good to me right about now.

Not that life is particularly bad - work is certainly stressful at the moment but August and September always suck, pandemic or not. So that's still Situation Normal, All Fouled Up. (ahem)

No, the problem is this bloomin' heat wave. I don’t have a/c at my house, which is no big deal for 48-50 weeks of the year. But during those 2-4 weeks when I'm actually tempted by the bother and expense, sleeping can get ugly.

Which it has - meaning that Sleepy and Cranky now battle for possession of my soul...

       while I self-medicate with more ice cream. (Hey, my mama didn't raise no fools!)

BookMan Picks the Dance

BookMan sent me this suggestion for a Friday Night Dance, with the disclaimer that it’s not his favorite style of dancing - “there’s a bit too much writhing” - but that the music was good and the dancers incredible.

To paraphrase Charlotte Lucas, I find that I can bear the writhing very cheerfully … 

     and I think it’s a gorgeous piece.

Hopefully you do, too.