Taking a breather

I saw that image on Regretsy last week and had to laugh. How could it not occur to someone, before creating gigantic words and permanently affixing them to a wall, to check the spelling first? Although I'm generally a good speller (one of my very few talents in life), there are a few words that tend to elude me. "Hors d'oeuvres" is one of them. On the rare occasion when I need to use it, I look it up.  Or, more commonly, I just write . . . "appetizers" instead. Rock on.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I've been struggling a bit lately with my stress level. My brain cannot rest. I go to yoga regularly and I can quiet my head for a few minutes while I'm there, but the world comes rushing back in as soon as I walk out the door after class. My job's been a bit challenging lately, so there's that. As you may recall, I also devote a lot of my time, on a volunteer basis, to a rescue organization.  I do this willingly, of course, but lately I've really felt burn-out closing in on me. The state passed a new law June 1st which requires a higher level of documentation than had been necessary before. The additional paperwork, combined with all of my other tasks with the rescue (website, fostering, adoption packets, expense reimbursements, etc.) just seemed to put me over the edge for some reason. When I get overwhelmed, I start getting crabby with the other volunteers, and that's not fair to them. We have three different email lists for the rescue (foster list, general list, and event list) and for now I've gone to "no mail" on all three. My wee baby sister and her crew are arriving in a few days and we're going to do the cabin by the lake thing for about a week. After that, I'll dig back in with the rescue and, with a little luck, will be somewhat refreshed and less irritable.

In the mean time, I'm spending extra time with the talkative young lass who lives in my home. School starts in a couple weeks and I want to enjoy the time we have left before then. I took one for the team yesterday and sat through "Mr. Popper's Penguins" at the budget theater with her. I used to like Jim Carrey when he was on "In Living Color" a million years ago, but my tolerance for him has been very low since then. (Similarly, my Nicholas Cage tolerance petered out shortly after "Raising Arizona" - which is still one of the best movies of all time.) After the movie, I paid $2 for my kid to stand in a hurricane simulator for 15 seconds - I couldn't take the begging and the pleading eyes.  Have you seen these simulators? They seem to be cropping up everywhere.  At the time, you think, "Ah, what's two bucks?" but then you realize you've let her do it umpteen times and really, you could stand her next to a fan at home for free.