Friday, January 8, 2010

Strategies for Feeling Better When Things Suck

Today started out awesome because it's Friday and I had a really great time with some new-ish (for me) friends last night. So I was feeling really confident, really on top of the world, really pulled together this morning. And that was despite not having very many good outfit options since it's the end of the week; usually that bothers me in the morning.

But not today! I'm totally ok with ABW (already been worn) jeans and my old green fleece. So ok, I get to work and am immediately productive, even though its Friday and I didn't have breakfast. I even get through my RSS feed this morning without getting totally distracted or fired up. Want to get fired up about something? This'll do it. Stupack sucks.

Anyway, things are going great. Then 11am rolls around, which has become My Enemy this week. For some reason, I can never keeping going past that hour. Then I wind up wasting an hour before lunch. Repeatedly, this is because something happens at work, and I need to take 30 minutes or so to re-plan out what work needs to get done when and catch my breath enough to prevent myself from leaping ontop of my desk and throwing things.

This happened today. What happened is irrelevant; there is always something. I hope that I will come to accept this and not feel the need to propel somewhat dangerous items at the heads of my cowokers. That will not be good for CW's and mine saving goals for the wedding or indeed my goal to stay out of jail.

I manage to get home for lunch and everyone is in one piece.

Maddie, who is much too good for a dog for me, sometimes bears the brunt of my Eleven O'Clock Hour of Rage, but today is Friday after all, so I force a smile and talk in a high pleasent voice about how much I love her. She wags her tail, and I feel myself actually feeling happy about how much I love her rather than angry about how much work (and Stupak) sucks.
  • Strategy #1: fake it until you make it.
We go for a walk. I cut it short because there are a lot of people on one of the roads in our apartment complex doing work on a water main, and Maddie's overly friendly personality often pushes me into social interactions I'd rather avoid. So we do a quick walk to keep from bumping into any of those people.
  • Strategy #2: know what makes you unhappy or angry and work around that.
Then its time for lunch. We have hot dogs. Actually, the sell-by date for them was January 1st, but hot dogs are highly processed right? Into the frying pan it goes.

"One lonely little hot dog for my lonely little lunch," I say pitifully to Maddie. But I think if I add some green beans that will be pretty healthy lunch. So I boil a pot of water to begin my made-up vegetable cooking strategy: put veggies in a pot of boiling water for three minutes, strain, then drop in cold water to stop the cooking, then serve. I don't know where I got that from, but the results have been pretty good (if a little cold).

I actually am really proud of myself because, instead of butter, I put olive oil, salt, and pepper on the beans. So even stressed out, I managed to cobble together a somewhat healthy (if the hot dog doesnt kill me) meal.

While lunch cooks, I wash the dishes the in sink, dry them, and put them away. I don't like having a) dishes in the sink or b) dishes in the drying rack on the counter cluttering the kitchen up. So I get rid of the dryer. In between making and eating my lunch, I clean the countertops and the stove top, wash; dry, and put away the dishes I used for my lunch; wipe down the coffee table with Pledge; and put away the little pile of junk growing on the kitchen table. I think about the best way to talk to CW about improving the way we manage the cleanliness of our house.
  • Strategy #3 and #4: distract yourself and think proactively.
Then I give Maddie a treat and send her to her crate. I turn up the heat and open all the doors upstairs so the apartment warms up as it cools down outside and the air circulates more. I get my things together and go outside and check my phone. And even a voice mail from my mom doesn't penetrate and bubble of calm I created.

Then I get to work and decide instead of waiting for a good time to write about the latest news that's interesting, I ought to just blog about my day because I want to be honest and I want this blog to be about Life, generally, as a twenty-something, thinking woman in the US. Then I read one of the may favorite bloggers, Penelope Trunk, who has a particularly relevant post today and had a great post yesterday, and I'm reminded about how much I want to talk about the challenges I, and I presume others, face every day. So I did.

2 comments:

  1. Meg ~ I just wanted to tell you that this cracks me up!! You made me smile today...even though this was an older post! :)

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  2. Thanks so much Rebecca, I'm glad I made you smile! And thanks for reading!

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