Oh, It’s Tuesday: Anxious and Overwhelmed

I have so much to do today that I woke up with a heavy ball of dread in my gut. Then I lied in bed for a half an hour paralyzed with fear.

When this happens, I do at least one of two things, but things work out best when I do both:

1) I make a list of everything I have to do then start doing it with the attendent satisfaction of getting ish done and crossing it off my list.

2) I remind myself that is not upcoming events making me anxious, but the unknown of them. I worry that I won’t be able to handle it if Betty goes ape on the plane or if we get to Hawaii and I’ve forgotten something. But the truth is that I always forget something. And even if Betty goes ape, I can switch tactics and try quite a few things to calm her down. Really, there’s no almost no situation that I’m not resourceful enough to handle. And the ones that I can’t, like death, are out of my hands, so it’s better not to think about those things.

So the ball of dread unknotted and I grabbed my iPhone to make a list and write this post. Now I can go cross it off my list.

I’m so glad that writing to you is usually my first task of the day. Now I’ve just got to do laundry, and buy a ream of paper, and get money from the ATM to pay our housesitter, and print out the remaining chapters of my rough draft for hand edits, and feed Betty breakfast, and…

Wish me luck,
etc