*deep breath, de-turtles*
So my roommate used to have this cat. Let's call the cat...Violet, shall we?
It was often the case that Violet would be standing smack in the middle of the narrow hallway that led from my room to the rest of the apartment, and in an attempt to get her to move, I would nudge her gently with my foot. Her response to this was usually to give a little "mrrr!" of annoyance...aaaaaaand then fall over (and start purring, more often than not).
This always amused me. It's a fine strategy when my response is going to be sliding her slooowly aside with my foot, but it struck me as a pretty counterproductive response to external stimuli in a wider "fight, flight, or FALL OVER!" survival-of-the-fittest a-predator-is-about-to-eat-me sort of way.
My own response to being overwhelmed, of course, is not dissimilar in its utter uselessness. It goes something like this: "Aahh! Too much to do! Can't see the floor for the crap everywhere! Need to unpack and do laundry! Kitchen's a disaster! So many emails! So many entries to read and write! Aaaah! Aaaah! MUST...SLEEP!!!" And thirty seconds later, no matter how wired I am, I'm out like a light on the couch.
You see the problem. I'm not SOLVING anything, I'm just postponing the inevitable. And the more I postpone, the more I stress, so the faster I konk out. Talk about your useful strategies. And the sad part is that I don't generally even sleep all that well as a result, since I'm stressed out.
Such has been my week. I had an absolutely fabulous time in Ottawa, got home, looked around - and hit the couch so fast I never even got dinner. Ditto Tuesday night (except I did manage to squeeze some dinner in before passing out). Wednesday night was actually a wonderful evening catching up with nottheterritory and anidada and of course last night was Supernatural with krakkernuts but aside from that? WHAMMO. Thirty seconds apart from other people and I'm down for the count.
All of this is by way of long-winded apology for being so quiet this week. I am thrilled to bits that I am doing NOTHING (well, almost nothing) this weekend after tonight (eee! Zil! Four hours! *bounces in excitement*), so I can clean and tidy (it's sad how excited I am about this) and email and dive happily into your entries and comment up an annoying little storm and drive you all nuts and catch you up on my life too. XD
And I can hardly wait. Because I miss you: I miss my vacationing co-worker without whom it's just not been the same, I desperately, desperately miss the wonderful women I spent last weekend with, and I miss hearing about ALL of my wonderful flist friends' lives and thoughts and having those little happy morsels of personal contact with you through comments. I MISS YOU ALL. *hugs* Talk to you sooon...
It was often the case that Violet would be standing smack in the middle of the narrow hallway that led from my room to the rest of the apartment, and in an attempt to get her to move, I would nudge her gently with my foot. Her response to this was usually to give a little "mrrr!" of annoyance...aaaaaaand then fall over (and start purring, more often than not).
This always amused me. It's a fine strategy when my response is going to be sliding her slooowly aside with my foot, but it struck me as a pretty counterproductive response to external stimuli in a wider "fight, flight, or FALL OVER!" survival-of-the-fittest a-predator-is-about-to-eat-me sort of way.
My own response to being overwhelmed, of course, is not dissimilar in its utter uselessness. It goes something like this: "Aahh! Too much to do! Can't see the floor for the crap everywhere! Need to unpack and do laundry! Kitchen's a disaster! So many emails! So many entries to read and write! Aaaah! Aaaah! MUST...SLEEP!!!" And thirty seconds later, no matter how wired I am, I'm out like a light on the couch.
You see the problem. I'm not SOLVING anything, I'm just postponing the inevitable. And the more I postpone, the more I stress, so the faster I konk out. Talk about your useful strategies. And the sad part is that I don't generally even sleep all that well as a result, since I'm stressed out.
Such has been my week. I had an absolutely fabulous time in Ottawa, got home, looked around - and hit the couch so fast I never even got dinner. Ditto Tuesday night (except I did manage to squeeze some dinner in before passing out). Wednesday night was actually a wonderful evening catching up with nottheterritory and anidada and of course last night was Supernatural with krakkernuts but aside from that? WHAMMO. Thirty seconds apart from other people and I'm down for the count.
All of this is by way of long-winded apology for being so quiet this week. I am thrilled to bits that I am doing NOTHING (well, almost nothing) this weekend after tonight (eee! Zil! Four hours! *bounces in excitement*), so I can clean and tidy (it's sad how excited I am about this) and email and dive happily into your entries and comment up an annoying little storm and drive you all nuts and catch you up on my life too. XD
And I can hardly wait. Because I miss you: I miss my vacationing co-worker without whom it's just not been the same, I desperately, desperately miss the wonderful women I spent last weekend with, and I miss hearing about ALL of my wonderful flist friends' lives and thoughts and having those little happy morsels of personal contact with you through comments. I MISS YOU ALL. *hugs* Talk to you sooon...