*glub glub*
November 6, 2007
A. BoyDucky’s father is still in the hospital, and we’re spending all our phone time discussing his father’s condition and the tens of conversations he’s having with family members, doctors and other medical professionals in the pursuit of consistent, high-quality medical care. It’s been two months after a “routine” procedure, and his dad is bedridden, hooked up to machines unable to eat, drink or get up, and delirious due to an infection that the doctors can’t get on top of. He is NOT getting better.
B. I’m supposed to be editing his letter to hospital administration, taking out the highly emotional language and replacing it with professional Take-Us-Seriously verbiage. Halfway through, I just don’t have time.
C. 8 hours is not enough time in the day to make progress on one of my work projects, much less the ten I’m coordinating or managing. So I’m tearing my hair out, rushing from one project to project, desperately trying to keep up, and maybe maybe maybe get ahead.
D. I still haven’t followed up with MaDucky’s medical appointments.
E. Financially hurting. How to get through the next several months on what I’m making? I definitely don’t have enough in the Expenses fund to cover the next three months of expenses without raiding any of the other funds. I’ve been trying to figure out how, yet again, to pare down those expenses. This means I have to confront the dang truck and insurance issue. One solution: Cut my brother out of the insurance: he’s not paying and I don’t have the money to cover his @$$. I am so frustrated with always having to deal with this, him, stuff.
F. My neck has been hurting for months and the massage therapy works for about ten minutes after the the therapist is through with me. Not a good return on investment, and driving is NOT safe when I can’t turn my head. I’m finally getting a referral to Physical Medicine for medical therapy. Except they’re only open 8:30 am-12pm, and 1pm-4:30pm Monday through Friday. If that’s not the most useless schedule for employed folks, I don’t know what is! Fine, so I could take a half day off, but that’s just going to make Problem C even worse! AND, even if I do take a half day, both Ma and PaDucky work so I have to try to work out a car arrangement so I can get to the doctor, back and to work.
G. Bridal shower invitations are still not done. STILL. It’s on Thanksgiving, and I still haven’t completed the invitations: I need to design the insert cards and address the envelopes, and print on the actual invitations. Recipe cards! I need someone to buy a box with blank recipe cards to go into the invitations!
*silent screaming*
About the only good thing I can see from that list above is that my health has moved up a grand total of one slot from the bottom of the list.
And I blog to get away from it all, except I really don’t have time to blog, I just need to blow off steam and NOT be kneedeep in all of that, all the time.
I know it could be a lot worse. It really could. But … *sigh* Can’t it be better, either?
Wow! That sounds like a real SOS! Sadly, I recognize that glub-glub feeling. š
Take deep breaths … in … out … again! (Disclaimer: relaxation exercises never helped ME, but maybe they’ll get you through, in the short term.) When you’re overstressed, you can’t even see straight, much less deal with all these problems at once. Remember all the “crunch times” that you’ve survived in the past. Have confidence that you’ll get through this one, too.
So sorry to hear that BoyDucky’s father’s health hasn’t gotten any better. It must be tough for BD and his family (and you, too), to be living with the constant anxiety.
Some small suggestions (take ’em or leave ’em):
1) Delegate the invitations and recipe cards, if at all possible.
2) Do most of your blogging in those “free” hours in the evening, now that your workday ends earlier. Or vent (if you must) during the day, but save the financial analyses for evenings.
3) Use commuting time (on the train) to get some chores done or to plan, make lists and memos, etc. OTOH, it might do you more good to fully relax, read, or take a nap.
4) Find a way to get to the doctor, even if it means taking a half-day. Do you have to go to that particular doctor, or are there partners with more convenient time slots? Also, if work policy permits, can you make up the missed time (by staying an hour late each night over the course of a week)? It wouldn’t count as overtime, just “deferred” worktime (comp-time).
Have you thought about getting a more lucrative job, or investing your money in more lucrative ways?
~Sabrina~ It actually did help, a little, to just throw it out there and get my thoughts running in a straight line again. I know I’m beyond stressed because I found myself irrationally angry at BoyDucky for not being available to me, and I just don’t angry at him. Not like that, not without an actual cause! Luckily, I realized that I shouldn’t be around people for a while, and grumping to myself, alone, helped.
I need that alone time more and more, as things heat up.
I’m going to be implementing some of your suggestions and we’ll see how tomorrow works out.
~bart~ Absolutely! First, I asked for a major raise earlier in the year, and have received part of it. The problem is that, temporarily, the office can’t pay for OT at least until July ’08, so while it’s a great break I needed that income. The raise just compensates for the lost overtime money.
That first item affects the second item: investing. I’m saving to share a down payment with a good friend, and we’re going to start investing in real estate together. Unfortunately, with the cut in take-home income, that’s going to be even more stressful for at least 10 months while I get that money together.