Ball of Stress

10 million points to Sheena today as I've unloaded many things on her. She's helped me realize I need to stop, take a massive deep breath, and prioritize. So... I'm going to do that, and I'm going to do that here.

Breathe: IN.... and OUT.... (repeat a lot)

Stressors

1) Food Part 1 - on my own.

I could have been worse, but I definitely still struggled Saturday night and especially Sunday night this weekend. I'm doing better today and feel confident that I won't slip up again tonight.

Solution? To help this stress I will implement my new rule: No eating after 8:00pm until Thanksgiving. That's only a week and a half. I can do that. Not eating after 8 will help me go to bed earlier, and I think sleep is something that will help make all of these things seem like less of a big deal.

Food Part 2 - special events

This Wednesday I have to go to a luncheon for Job #1. That SAME night I have another event for Job #1 (which is strangely being held at Job #2) where there will be "refreshments." That's a full day of unplanned food. Sunday is our tasting, and while I'm excited for it, I know it won't be what I'd typically be eating on a Sunday at 11:30am. The very next day (Monday) is potluck Thanksgiving Lunch at Job #1. And then real Thanksgiving is on Thursday. SO MUCH.

Solution? I requested a special starch free lunch for the luncheon, so hopefully the biggest challenge will just be watching everyone else eat all the good stuff... and then that night I think I'll just focus on talking to people instead of eating, considering I should know a lot of people there. And also Job #1 potluck Thanksgiving is not real Thanksgiving... I can enjoy those foods later in the week. And as for the tasting and Thanksgiving? I'm just going to try to enjoy them without stuffing myself - those are special days so I don't want to be too restrictive.

2) Work.

On Friday, Job #1 held a meeting and told us there would be cuts (mainly moving some full time people to part time). I'd be surprised if I were one to be cut back, but you really never know I guess. They'll make the announcement in January and the cuts will be effective in May. At least that buys me time to figure out what to do if needed, but that's still just something that's eating away at me... knowing this job might not be as stable as I'd hope.

Also Job #2 is out of control. Our boss has lost it. Every day I get an email from her that is totally over the top. I feel like we're being treated with little to no respect. The expectations are impossible to meet. We're being set up for failure and scolded like children. I'm really trying hard not to get wrapped up in it but it is hard, especially when most of my friends work there, so it's next to impossible not to talk about it with each other.

Solutions for work stress? At Job #1 I'm going to make an effort to somehow seem invaluable. I don't know how to do that quite yet, but I need to figure it out. And as far as Job #2, I'm going to do my best to ignore the emails and not worry about it unless I'm on the clock.

3) House.

Ok this one is dumb, but it has to do with decorating. I got a new shower curtain (ordered it online and it came in the mail) and now I don't know what bathmats and towels work with it. I also need to decorate for Christmas (and our Christmas party we are having!), but I don't want to decorate until the house is clean. I did some good cleaning on Sunday, but there's just so much to do. And still unpacking to do. Not to mention figuring out how to decorate for Christmas - after about a week of stressing over which Christmas theme to pick, I finally settled on "Scandinavian red and white"... I got a few things at Michaels, but now they seem to clash with our burgandy area rug. Do I return them and start all over or do I just figure no one else will notice a stupid detail like that and stick with the original plan?

Solution? Either take pictures and send them to my mom to see what she thinks, and/or wait until Andy gets back to get his opinion.

4) Knee.

It hurts. My PT exercises take forever to do. My PT exercises seem to make it hurt more....

Solution? Tell the PT guy on Thursday which exercises make it hurt and find alternatives. I also met with Vinny this morning and he showed me a good circuit I can do to build up my legs. Honestly, I think I'll probably follow what Vinny has set up for me more than PT. I hope that's not a bad decision...

The end. (not really but the other things are so trivial, they aren't worth writing about.... either that or I don't want you to realize how crazy I actually am)

Anyway, moving on. My weekend wasn't very exciting (although I did go to yoga on Friday night so feel free to praise me... keep it on the modest side though since it was counteracted with two nights of food fest). Besides Friday night yoga, I spent my weekend shopping (bad girl), eating weird crap at night (weirdest concoction = a bowl of freeze-dried raspberries with chocolate pudding mixed in, eating it with a spoon like cereal), cleaning the bathroom and basement (that was good at least), and watching bad TV (we're talking QVC for hours... so bad).

Definitely not an amazing weekend for me, but the same cannot be said for Cheetah Sarah because on Sunday....

Sarah running next to her brother, Tim

... she ran her first marathon (Philadelphia) in a whopping time of 4:12:09. Incredible!!! Sarah and Tim have been using the same training program over the last 8,000 weeks and Sunday was finally the big day when they finally got to run together (Tim lives in Philly). :-) I'M SO PROUD OF YOU SARAH!!!!!!

Check out that medal!

Way to go Tim!!!

Friends - you may recognize Tim... he was one of our runners on the Seneca 7 relay! He's super fast, just like Sarah... it obviously runs (har har) in the family!

Sarah and Tim = Marathoners!!!

I am so thrilled for Sarah and can't wait for her to get back so I can hear every single tiny teeny little detail!!!! :-)