Stress Management

Ever have one of those days when you know before your feet even hit the ground that the day is going to be one big epic fail?  Well, it's definitely one of those days, folks.  For sure.

This fun day began at 12:30 a.m. when we got hit with a new round of thunderstorms.  I'm getting just a little bit tired of all the severe weather here in Indiana, and while I enjoy sleeping in when it's raining outside, I don't enjoy being startled awake by claps of thunder repeatedly and continuously between the hours of 12:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.  The weatherman said we got somewhere around three inches of rain overnight, and it wasn't just rain, let me tell you.  T and I are both very light sleepers so needless to say, not much sleep was had last night.  When the alarm went off at 5:30 for us to get up to workout, we both immediately knew that that wasn't happening today.  We slept a little more until 6:30, but the storms kept coming so even that was short-lived. 

So we get up and start getting ready for the day.  I turn on the news and hear about all of the flooding that was happening all over the Indianapolis metro area. Apparently an explosion occurred underground and blew open a manhole downtown, too, and lightning struck and took out a strip mall on the north side.  From the way they were talking on the news, you would have thought the apocalypse was occurring that very moment.  I have expected to see locusts swarming outside are window and four horsemen riding in.  As I'm getting ready, I hear the traffic report state that the Interstate I take from our home to my work is basically a parking lot.  No one is going faster than 10 mph.  Unfortunately there aren't many ways to get up from the south side of Indianapolis to my work, so I had no choice but to face it.  And boy, they weren't lying.  My normal 20-30 minute commute took well over an hour.  There was a 45 minute long period where 10 mph was the fastest I traveled.  The rain came down in sheets, and visibility was definitely not good.  Momentarily I thought, eh, I can just head home and call in sick, right?  Nope, I had an 8:30 hearing.  So I get there at like 8:26 and rush in, hair all a mess, clothes wet and now cold because the air conditioning at the courthouse keeps the room at a nice 55 degree temperature.  All of this before 8:30 in the morning...

The hearing went fine, which is always a really good thing, but when I hit the office a second wave of stress hit.  Now, my job is normally stressful, which is to be expected in child protection law, but today the stress was just particularly high.  I won't go into details of why, since I like to keep my work life for the most part private, but let's just say tensions are high.  Lunch could not come quickly enough.

I have my days like this where I think "I should have been a yoga instructor" or "maybe law wasn't the smartest profession for someone who doesn't handle stress well."  No wonder I got a B minus in Stress Management in college!  (Yes, they had a class called Stress Management, and yes, I took it and only managed to walk out of it with a B minus...don't judge!)  Just trying to remember to breathe and think of hte weekend...not sure if anyone else out there is feeling my pain today.  I think I want a do-over today.  Anyone with me?