Stress, preparation and Stan...

Oh come on now! You know 3 posts in a few days was just a fluke! I was never going to keep up that kind of pace was I?

Life has been STRESSFUL! Well - not life - but work. Very stressful. Pressure, deadlines, working into the evening, work creeping into family life, work creeping into all aspects of life. Really not what I had in mind when I started working at this job in November. Everyone said to me that part-time work is never really that. They were right.. It will happily creep into every aspect of my life. What to do about it though? Well as I see I have a number of options:
- learn to deal with the stress in a constructive way. HA! Easier said than done is alls I can say. Running helps but does not solve it. I know people who can work hard, be really engaged and then switch off. I know that I need to "put my stress in a box" and shelve it. I know that. I just don't know how to.
- make my boundaries much more apparent to my employers and colleagues. Yes another good one. Despite my general gobbiness (few of you actually know me but believe I talk the hind legs off the proverbial donkey) I am not enormously assertive about my boundaries and what I will not do. Saying "no" in other words. More to work on there..
- give it up. But I really don't want to. I really want to work this out, work this through, learn how to handle this job better.
So I'll be working on the 1st and 2nd points then...

Preparation. Race preparation. Travel preparation. Well what can I say - I'm ready! I went out for 4 in the dark (that happened quickly!) and I was chomping at the bit to burst free. However it's all about control now and keeping it IN the jar so I'm doing that. I'm doing 8 on Sunday and then it's really slowing down. Heading to Chicago Thursday morning via Humberside - Amsterdam - Detroit and then driving across town to stay with my friends. That should be fun - driving on my own on the other side of the road after a good 12 hours of traveling. You can see why I plumped for SatNav... And then Friday we've arranged to meet all the other amazing blogging buddies at the expo and we'll take it from there?

Stan. Is a spot. I never get spots. Didn't have acne as a teenager, don't spot over at my time of month - it just doesn't happen. But last week - probably due to all the stress (see above) I got a spot. And not just any old spot. This spot was gigantic! Enormous! No-one said to me "oh you wouldn't notice it was there" because that would be like ignoring a second head that was sprouting out of my face. This spot was of such epic proportions I really did feel it had a life of its own and therefore I named him Stan. Of course this was the week we had a big launch at work where I had to stand around covering my chin with my hand like a teenager and then I met a friend who I hadn't seen for 18 years (! the wonders of Facebook).. Anyway I'm not a very make-uppy kind of girl but this was a crisis so I went into a beauty shop and just pointed at my chin. The staff, again, didn't pretend there was nothing there but like EMTs rushing to an accident they whisked out all their magical stuff and by the time they were done I had a beauty spot. Not great - it kind of looked like a wart - but not as bad as Stan.

While there is still stress, Stan is shrinking, finally. I didn't take a picture - I just couldn't bear it. But take it from me - with one thing and another - I'm looking forward to getting on that plane next week and leaving everything behind for a few days.

BRING IT ON CHICAGO!