Tag: stress

  • Fortunes, adventures, and words

     So, I had Chinese food the other day, and it gave me an idea.  I looked at the fortune I got, and decided to track them, just for fun, so I’ll try and keep up this stream-of-consciousness type thing as I have more come my way. 

    5/10/2011
    "You are broad minded and socially active."
      Disregarding the ambiguous grammar of that line (Do I think about broads a lot?  Well, I’m not from the 40’s, so not so much.) I have to admit I’m not as broad-minded as I’d like to be.  I’m rather stuck in my set of opinions, and as I have a long record of being right about things, I tend to stick by that, despite the fact I also have a good record of being wrong, as well.  When I am wrong, once I’m convinced, I will accept that, and change my mind, opinion, or what-have-you to match the truth of the matter.  I have been trying to open my mind and learn new things lately, but it’s a struggle, I have to admit.  
      As for "Socially Active"?  Well, for a hermit, I’m downright gregarious, but for a butterfly, I might as well still be in my cocoon.  Something I’m also working on.  
      So, ending analysis, this slip of paper missed the mark pretty broadly.

    5/11/2011
    "You will take a chance in something in near future."  
      Again, I’m compelled to point out the less than stellar grammar. ("Use your articles!!!!") However, I am indeed going to take a chance, very soon.  Just bought a car, and that was a huge deal, just for what it was, and next week, I have to fly down to NY to pick it up.  I haven’t been flying in over a decade, and I haven’t even traveled in a couple years, not since my last car just gave up the ghost.  (My fault, totally.  Scheduled maintenance is NOT optional.  Who knew?)  I had to find the right flights, the right connections, and then trains and trolleys to get there.  It’s a mess of details, and schedules, workarounds, and adventure that I’ve been avoiding for the last few forevers, so this is kind of exciting.

    5/14/11
    "You Will Always Be Successful in Your Professional Career"
      Hmmmm, considering I don’t have, nor have had for 2 years, gainful, not to mention professional employment, this one is really stretching credibility.  
     
    More later!

    5/21/11
    "Simplicity and clarity should be the theme in your dress"

      Uhh, well, ignoring the obvious pun there, I just have to say that  I don’t think I COULD get more simplistic in my dress without going nude.  Typically it’s just T-shirt, jeans, socks, sneaks, underwear, a watch, Livestrong bracelet and glasses.  I COULD do without the wrist items, but I like my watch, and the yellow bracelet is elegantly simple on its own.
    So, I’d say this "fortune" missed it’s mark.  However, I now know how to pronounce watermelon in Chinese, so it wasn’t a total loss.

  • Stress and dreams

          So, I had some pretty vivid dreams last night.  In this case, I’m pretty sure they all were images of things i need to do, or have been thinking of doing, or on my mind in some way.  So, nothing really life-shattering.  The reason I bring this up is that I haven’t been having many dreams lately.  Heck, I haven’t been sleeping well enough to have dreams, most nights.  But yesterday, a little thing happened that took a lot of stress away, if only for a little while.  And, as a result, I slept, and slept well.  When I awoke, I didn’t wallow in bed, saying, "I don’t want to get up, I didn’t sleep enough."  Which, in truth, really means I have nothing to do for the day, and staying in bed just makes more sense, from a comfort perspective, than getting up and thinking about things.  You know, as I’m prone to do when awake. 
     

         Anyway, so in this dream I leave work for lunch, and I go to my mom’s place, and I’m sitting on her bed, talking.  She offers me something that is reminiscent of a meatball sub, but for some reason, I spill it and get it on the bed.  Saying I’ll get it before it sets, I take the sheets and run to the laundry next door.  I also run to my own apartment to get my own sheets to wash, after all, why waste quarters on only half a load?  Then, I run back to work, for something I’m still not clear on, but to get something, but avoiding detection from any of the bosses, then I leave again.  I then call in to the bosses, explaining that for various reasons, I would be late coming back from lunch, but I’ll be there as soon as I can.  Returning to the parking-lot mall where the laundry is,  walk past my car, which I did not drive there from work.  There is a police-type looking at the expired tags and pulling out his notebook as I pass on the way to the laundry.  Getting into the laundry, I get the sheets out and fold them, then talk to the manager there, and ask them for help.  Just like in an 80’s comedy, she arranges a bunch of people to go out and push my car into the attached automatic car-wash, telling the cop that the car had been pushed here, not driven, and will be pushed back, preparatory to repair or sale. 

         At this point, I wake up somewhat, to wonder at the vividness of the dream.  Not having any need to be up right then, I drift back off, to end up working at Best Buy, talking with an attractive co-worker that is as not the sharpest tool in the shed.  In fact, she’s downright stupid, but she likes talking to me, a lot.  I finally get honest with her, and tell her that I really don’t have the patience to talk with her, because it seems she’s always saying "What do you mean?" and "Huh?" and generally requiring scads of explanation of anything I’m saying.  I ask her if she was capable of understanding metaphor and examples, and she doesn’t know, but she’ll try.  So, so, I pull out my iPod, and have her listen to a Ricky Gervais Guide To… episode, and tell her to pay attention to Karl Pilkington.  She does, and doesn’t understand, of course.  I tell her that she seems a LOT like Karl.  He’s not stupid, so much as woefully undereducated.  His imagination has been allowed to supply him with ideas and opinions unchecked by knowledge, so much to the point that he sounds incredibly stupid, but isn’t really.  All this meaning I don’t really think you’re stupid, young girl, but I don’t have the patience, willpower, or incentive to talk to her, and in effect, teach her things she never bothered to learn already.  She then asks me who I would have patience with.  And being WAY more frank in my dreams than I’d ever be in real life, I tell her that my girlfriend, probably, meaning to finish with, "but how would I become the boyfriend with someone I don’t respect in the first place?" but never get the chance.  She pipes up with, "Then I’m your girlfriend!" very cheerily.  I tell her, no, that can’t be true. the patience I would need would require tons of reward, and just having a girl say she’s my girlfriend isn’t quite what I mean.  She said, she knows, and she’ll do…. okay, at this point, it got a little on the R-Rated side, for adult themes and sexually explicit language, but boiled down, she says she’s made her way through life on her looks, and is a little frustrated by being stupid herself, but knows she’s great in bed, and has no problem using that skill to fix the stupid.  At this point, I woke up again, in a cold sweat, and went and took a colder shower.
    In order, things on my mind. 1)  No job, last one I really hated, so any any excuse to not be there was used, 2) my mom is dead, and I miss her, 3) House mate works at Subway, and brought home leftover meatballs they can’t keep for the next day (But didn’t share), 4) I need to wash my sheets (duh) 5) back to the hated job, and excuses 6) my car needs tags, and to be repaired, (though she’s actually pretty clean.) 7) I don’t really like stupid people, unless they’re hot and giving me something with that hotness. And finally 8) I need a girlfriend.

         As I said, nothing earth-shattering, or nothing I can’t figure out a reason to, but honestly, it was nice to have dreams again, no matter how odd, self-revelatory, or embarrassing.