Friday is here

Anonymous: spot on. I do think it's when ego gets free rein that stuff gets really ugly.

I've commented before that in big, bad situations - where something serious is at stake or it's a "real" emergency - I can remain almost unearthly calm (well, unearthly calm for me). I can get done what needs to get done - as long as I am focusing on the fact that there are other people I have to help or other people who are depending on me/looking to me for leadership, I don't freak out.

But, when it's a little situation - or when the worst of the emergency is over and the need for me to be in control ebbs, that's when I will sometimes freak out.

I think that's a similar thing - when you're focused on the outside world or on what other people need, you can keep stuff like nerves or ego under control.

(I've said before that were I a young woman during the London Blitz, I'd probably wind up as one of the people rolling bandages or brewing tea in the shelters or trying to tell fairy stories to comfort scared children...in bad situations, if I can just find something that seems useful to do, I fare a lot better. And actually, thinking back just under ten years ago now...I was at my calmest on Sept. 11, 2001, when I was out heeding my father's advice ("We don't know how bad this may be. Make sure you have a full tank of gas, enough bottled water for at least five days, and food that you don't have to refrigerate and can eat without cooking."))

***

I'm more tired than I should be today. (Or, more tired than I think I should be.) I suspect it's allergies...ragweed seems to have cranked up here again. (I'm surprised, given the drought, that anything's flowering). Doing my hour's workout was unusually tough this morning...I don't think it was any more humid than it's been (I noticed it most in my breathing). But I did also ache more than I normally do.)

I'm glad it's Friday. My minimal goal for this afternoon is to write (but not necessarily type; I want some time to think over the questions first) the first exam for PI and to do the next chapter's lecture material (I already have notes for that so it should not take as long).

(I do also need to go get my quilt. And go to the bank.)

Saturday, I'm still going antiquing. I need a day out. I've decided upon Sherman/Denison because

- I don't feel like fighting the traffic to McKinney, and at any rate, that's a full-day expedition and I want to go home in the afternoon and knit or quilt.

- Ardmore feels too far away, and also, there's not as good of a grocery opportunity on the way home.

- I don't know what any of the other nearby areas have. There's Davis, but it's about as far as Ardmore, and again there's the issue of time, gas, and grocery opportunities.

- If I go to Sherman, I can buzz past the craft stores and just see if they have any Wool-Ease or something on clearance in colors that I want for the huge crocheted blanket. (Though I found a few more of the balls of yarn I had been using, and I wound off the un-munched part of a ball of wool that the carpet beetles got into when I had a carpet beetle infestation. Yeah, I have a box of "munched wool" that I can't quite bear to throw out, but that I know will annoy me to try to knit with because of the need for all those joins. Eventually I will just gut up and throw it all out.)

- There are a number of restaurant choices in the area, and I've decided that part of the trip is taking myself out for lunch someplace. Preferably somewhere with waiters/waitresses who bring you your food (as opposed to "stand at a counter to get your food" or "walk through a buffet line")