Blue Funk Emergence ...

Sounds like a rock band doesn't it?

I’m bored today but happily emerging from my blue funk that I’ve been in for the past few weeks. Ya’ gotta’ love those hormonal swings don’t ya’? At least I hope that’s what it is because I don’t think I’m capable of handling any real mental illness … but then isn’t that the whole point of a breakdown is not handling a mental illness? Anyway, it seems like menopause is lurking on my horizon and I don’t know whether to ward it off or welcome it with open arms. I miss my mom. She’d know what to do.

In the midst of my funk I’ve been training a new field office manager to start in August at my company’s St. Helena site. It’s been a very long month. Let me just sum it up by saying that training her is equivalent to having a vicious, salivating, Chihuahua chewing on the cuff of my pants everyday … except this Chihuahua has a voice less appealing than a dentist’s drill running at high speed. The upside is that I’ve earned quite a few accolades here at work and now enjoy a reputation as a saint with the patience of Job … the total antithesis of my usual reputation … and it’s because I’m the only one here not yet totally climbing the walls as a result of her presence but that’s only because I pray everyday that God won’t let me kill her. So far he’s interceded quite nicely but I hope August gets here soon.

Speaking of dogs … I think my dog Teddy may be going senile. Seriously. He’s about 10 and that translates to 70 in dog years. Prime time for Alzheimer’s in humans, right? I don’t know if it exists in the canine world, and maybe Teddy will be the first dog ever to get it, but he keeps straining at the leash and barking at strangers and he has NEVER barked at ANYONE, EVER. It started about a week ago and it’s the weirdest thing he’s ever done … well, outside of eating out of the cat’s litter box (mmm mmm good, Almond Roca for dogs, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside!). If he keeps this up I don’t know what I’ll do. It would be awful to put Grandpa down just because he has Alzheimer’s but it might be exactly what happens to Teddy in my wacky and wonderful world.

No big weekend plans. No big plans in general. Just a lot of puttering and fumbling around. I’m having a hard time finding my groove in this empty nest stage of my life and don’t feel like doing anything about it right now … or doing anything at all right now … and so, for right now, the plan is to have no plan and so I’ve given myself permission to do absolutely nothing at all guilt free. I think my groove will best be found by just hanging around the house ... for now.

Last night on TV there was yet another male comic making jokes about women and yeast infections. I’m tired to death of this as fodder for jokes. Women! Every chance you get, remind your men that those “yeast infections” that they bemoan and make so much fun of are identical to what they so happily carry around on their feet like a badge of courage and call “athlete’s foot”. Get over it already! Hmmm, maybe we should start calling it “athlete’s hoohoo”. Quick, who do we know at Webster’s?

The “kids” and their “girls” are coming over for dinner on Friday and I’m looking forward to them and all their fuss. I have the whole weekend to recover, right?

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