Life is Just a Bowl of Stress

What an incredibly stressful month this has been. Here at Chez Pug, we're working on some financial/housing changes that have been time-consuming but also stressful. When I was selling real estate years ago, we were told that buying or selling a house is one of the 3 or 4 most stressful life events that people experience, right after death of a spouse and divorce. I truly believe it! I bought my first house in 1976, sold it in 1979 to buy a new house with my former husband, sold that one against my will in 2002, and have been living in what I consider to be interim housing ever since.

Part of my problem, I think, is that I'm still not convinced, 5 years later, that I'm in GA for good. It feels temporary, interim, impermanent. I keep thinking that something will happen, we'll move somewhere else -- either back to Virginia or to North Carolina near my daughters. Maybe something crazy like Albuquerque! I've been fighting the idea that we're staying here. But, obviously, we are. Next Wednesday I will celebrate my 7th anniversary with my company -- seems like I've made a commitment. (I sure hope they have!)

Anyway, we're moving toward a permanent solution and that's been stressful.

Then, there's work. I have a new year-long assignment, in addition to my other projects, that will take a week or so every quarter, but those days will be incredibly high-profile in the company, and it will either be wonderful or crappy. No middle ground.

And there's a lot going on at work anyway, without a new assignment. My job changes on an hourly basis, depending on what kinds of trouble the employees get into. So there's a constant deluge of minor thefts, threats, employees losing their equipment, employees getting into trouble oversea, etc. So we're constantly investigating something. Plus, last week I had to make presentations to each of our executive vice presidents and our acting CEO individually, to make sure I'm on the right track with them. I have one more to complete, tomorrow morning.

Add to that, this week our department held a big kickoff meeting with all the folks in other cities coming here. More presentations, more Power Points, more peppy, motivational behavior. In the middle of all that, we had a major problem in one of our buildings that put me at odds with one of said executives. Not a great week.

I'm hoping March will be better. What do you want to bet?