Meetings and Massages

I arrived home, feeling exhausted and starving. Hmm, what did I eat today? Two plums, a mince pie (my first of the festive season,yum), some BBQ beef Hula Hoops and...oh, that's it. That explains a lot. It was a long day. Boss Lady went to speak to Miss T first thing about something and when I looked up,she was in tears. I asked what had happened and she explained that she had found this morning that her auntie had died, suddenly, at the age of fifty-two. It had come as a huge shock. I'm not surprised, fifty-two is way too young to go. It was made worse because her mum lives abroad now and was devastated she hadn't been here. Miss T and I asked questions, made sympathetic noises and tried to be supportive. I made things worse in my own special way by handing her a tissue which I forgot was one of those menthol ones. You're not crying enough! Rub this in your eyes, dammit! Oops.

It was National Stress Awareness Day today at work. I don't know if it actually was national, or if indeed most of us even need a special day to make us aware of stress, but the reason I mention it is because there were various activities for staff throughout the day. As soon as I had seen the email advertising it a week or so ago, I clicked the link straight away, knowing that they have organised similar events in the past and that the activities booked up pretty quickly. There were 10-minute Indian head massages or acupressure massages on offer. Ol' geekypants here was the first to book: last slot of the day, 16:50, just before hometime. Suh-weet.

I hadn't mentioned said massage to Boss Lady before today. Yesterday, I had been pondering the idea of offering the booking to her, knowing the difficult time she has had lately. I was conflicted with the fact that my neck and shoulders have been incredibly tense to the point of painful lately, and could well benefit from a massage, hence my eagerness in booking. But after this latest news, I knew I wouldn't feel right not offering it to her. I emailed her my booking and asked if, in view of all the things she's had going on, she'd like to take my place, while recommending the relaxing effects, based on the free Indian head massage I got last year. Boss Lady emailed back a little while later, saying that she would be okay, but that it was a very thoughtful offer and much appreciated. I told her could still change her mind later if she wanted, feeling much better that I had at least made the suggestion.

At 2.00pm, Boss Lady and I had a meeting with BlankFace, Shoulders (he is a gym freak and does weights, so has broad shoulders and that trademark strut that such people have) and Ms. Sugar (because she reminds me of a much more stylish, female version of Alan Sugar, for no other reason than she is very direct, knows her stuff and is all business, which for one I like, but secondly was necessary in this particular meeting, lol). The meeting was about some of the processes that I deal with and how we are going to go about stream-lining them for from the start of next session and the interim procedures we can put in place to make things easier until then. It frustrates me slightly that we are finally making progress in my area of work, with the support of my managers as well as some quite high-profile academic staff, just in time for me leaving. I feel a little bit rueful that I'm not going to be in post to be involved with the developments or to see the changes implemented.

The meeting finished with lots of questions still outstanding, meaning that we have another meeting to come next week. I returned to my desk, realising that I hadn't eaten any lunch. I went to the shop with Skins and T-Rod, got some crisps and then went back to my desk to try and get some work done. At 4.40pm, I asked Boss Lady if she was sure she didn't want to go for the massage. She assured me that I should go ahead, so I went up to the 5th floor and waited outside the seminar room for my appointment. When it was my turn, I chose the acupressure massage, as I have some knots that desperately need to be worked out of my shoulders. The therapist told me to tell her if it became painful at any time, which it did, but mmm, it hurt so good. Lol. I left feeling better, but still feeling a little bit tense and stiff. Methinks I need more than ten minutes to get my muscles untangled.

Miss T left at 5.15pm, then Boss Lady left about fifteen minutes later. I stayed a while longer, doing a few bits of work while simultaneously editing a couple of blog posts and looking up a few things on the 'net. I eventually left work and wrote most of this post on my way home, making use of the CrackBerry to distract me from the fact that I was tired and hungry and starting to get irritable. When I arrived home, I had a chat to Big Sis about some Facebook politics, then fixed myself some toast as the fastest option for filling my belly. I retreated upstairs and watched Lion Man for a a bit. After a while, Big Sis joined me so that she could borrow my laptop. She took my old laptop off my hands to give to Bro-in-Law for his birthday and he re-installed Windows onto it yesterday and has now sorted out the internet access. Big Sis had used it, but he has forbidden the use of Facebook on it. "My name is Big Sis," she keeps saying, "and I am a Facebookaholic." We did our usual chit-chatting and our special brand of silliness was cracking me up. I made her do a fertility quiz from Stylist magazine and glared at her when I had to ask such questions as "Do you suffer from PMS?" which kept making us laugh.

Eventually, it was time to watch True Blood, so Big Sis went to get ready for bed. True Blood was good, but made me feel a little sad and also a little puzzled about how many other of the good characters are going to get killed off. I didn't call The Ex, mainly because I didn't feel like talking to anyone, but the anxiety of knowing that I will need to speak to him at some point is still there. I am feeling fine most of the time while I am at work, but often, after I get home and as the evening wears on, I find that any good mood starts depleting. Maintaining a positive demeanour and enough motivation to get through the day, along with the regular daily tasks that are necessary for my basic existence, seems to expend my energy to a greater degree than it probably used to. By the time I get home, I feel physically spent and often start to feel emotional due to my mental energy also being at a low. I should be asleep by now, really. I can't believe it is Thursday tomorrow and almost a full week into November. Roll on, weekend. Just don't bring Christmas with you quite yet.