Happy Birthday, to me. Helen must have had her 24th birthday on Sunday. It’s amazing how some things stick with you. She was always a step or two ahead of me. Today was super-fabulous in that it was not super-fabulous but pretty much an all around typical day. I did not have to report for jury duty as my last name does not begin with any of the letters between G and V. It was a pretty mundane day, the primary exception being that hilarity temporarily ensued at work.
Arriving a little late, I discovered that my desk had been appropriately defaced with birthday wishes and birthday clipart. O Clipart, how do I love thee. Amongst the slice-of-cake confetti that covered my desk was a single “Ultra Lubricated” Lifestyles condom. (spammers, make your funny posts below). Just imagine all of the work inappropriate jokes that this invited.
”Ewww, the nurse called, one of my kids has lice!”
“I gave Kristen lice once.”
”You won’t have to worry about giving her anything else, now.”
“I have to stop lending things to people because I never get them back.”
”Did you need that condom back? I only used it once.”
You get the idea.
Unfortunately, it’s the end of my day and I’m tired and a little sick. I really just want to go home and lie down but I have class tonight. This is all related to an event last Thursday evening.
I was about to go into my Organic Chemistry midterm exam when I got a text from my boss reading something to the effect of, “we need to talk tomorrow.” This has always been a concerning statement, no matter how gently it is delivered. At that point, I discovered that my reaction was to shrug it off and mentally toss it on the back burner, thinking to myself, “I can’t actually be more stressed out than I am now. I’ll come back to it later.” I took the test, a bit sleep deprived/stressed out and went home.
In the morning, I stopped by and chatted with my boss about being burned out. She’s right, I am burning out. We talked about my responsibility to the people on my case load (i.e. it’s ok if they all end up homeless, I don’t need to fix them) and how I am taking care of myself, or rather, not taking care of myself.
I can empathize with those kids whose lives are overscheduled and are, despite it, high achievers. The stress they feel to keep going and keep maintaining their progress 14 hours a day is just wearing. So, today, I feel ill. I really just want to go home and sleep but will be grabbing a quick dinner and then running to class. What’s more amazing is that I’m contemplating keeping the same schedule for next semester based on the level of success I’m seeing now (I did very well on my Organic Chemistry exam. I only missed one question and it was because I didn’t do it at all. Looking back, all I can think is, “Really? I skipped that one? Really?” It was an easy two pointer.)
Well, it’s time for me to run. I hope my evening leaves me feeling a bit more energized.