Hi All,

Sorry, but I just need a friend today. I gained 3.5 pounds in one week, my marriage is not going well, I returned from vacation to 155 work emails, this woman at work is just annoying the crap out of me, and I'm in a terrible mood. Anyone have a funny joke or story? Maybe a similar commiseration?

Sincerely,
Debbie Downer

Hope your day gets better!

This pictures always makes me LOL! Hope you like cat memes! Hehehehe!

HAHA! LOVE the hilarious cat photo. Thank you! I definitely need some more of those today.

Yeah, let's hope I didn't actually gain 3.5 lbs of fat...although I was pretty naughty this past week.

Well you know what? It was only 3, not or 10.... right? Silver linings and all?

And you had a really nice vacation, right? Ah Monday. Love the cat meme! Seems fitting!

Just spotted this and it seemed appropriate. When things seem too big to handle, take a deep breath and do what you can to fix it. No one can do everything, but little things can make a world of difference. 3.5 lbs can easily be water weight. If 155 emails accumulated over a week, I'm sure at least some of them were sent by people who didn't realize you were out, figured it out, and found a way to take care of things in your absence. Everyone has that one obnoxious person at work...do your best to ignore her. Headphones are nice if you're allowed to have them

I've been having a pretty crappy time at work lately too...we're at the end of the semester and one school realized "Oh crap, we forgot about our first graders!" and mashed 1st grade classes into every free second I had for the rest of the semester. One school told me "Oh, btw, we're probably going to cancel English a lot...we want to get ready for sports day," (essentially f-you and your hours of planning per lesson...it's more important to us to try to force sullen pre-teens to run in extra circles in the schoolyard after their allotted PE time...it's no big deal that we pulled crap like this at the beginning of the semester and you just finished catching up after 2 months without prep periods...right?)...so I feel your pain with work frustrations at least. On the relationship front, I have a wonderful guy and we're very happy, but the fact that he lives in Virginia and I live in Japan makes me incredibly lonely from time to time (read: pretty much every day). In both cases I've found that crazy-long workouts burn off some stress and help me sleep better at night.

...now that I've rambled on forever, just try to hang in there. If things look bad all at once, they can only get better from there, right? I'm sure that you're an amazing person and strong enough to push through all the crap to a happy ending.

I hiiiighly doubt you gained 3.5lbs of fat this week. That's 12250 EXTRA calories you would have had to consume on top of your normal calories. So yeah. I'm pretty sure it's not 3.5lbs of fat. You're probably just retaining water from the stress of everything that's going on.

What you need is to get out and do something that's going to make you feel good about yourself. Just revel in the awesomeness that is YOU.

Also, hugs help. Go hug your cat. She might not appreciate it, but it'll make you feel better.

OMG Hotaru that is ADORABLE!!

Ok, you guys are officially some of my favorite people in the world right now. Thank you for your fantastic support and pictures! I totally feel like that puppy today. Gym time at 11 - the only time I have to go is at lunch - so hopefully I'll feel better soon.

Hugs to Hotaruchan! I'm sorry you have to deal with a frustrating school system. Where are you in Japan? SO WAY COOL that you teach in a foreign country.

I have a little bob-tail cat who takes on our super-sized German shepherd with that same look. The silly dog is afraid of her.

My scale is crazy. I was trying it out this weekend and it weighed me as much as 6 lbs different in the same minute. I know I didn't gain 6 lbs in 30 seconds. Maybe your scale is having a problem.

Last week I "gained" 2.6 pounds. It was ALL water weight. I spent 2 days on plan, walked, and drank water, then suddenly I was at the same weight before the gain, the 2.6 pounds just fell off in two days. Today I weighed myself and I'm actually .6 lbs LESS than yesterday. So... water weight possible. Maybe if you stick to plan for a few days, you'll see those 3.5 pounds fall off.

Crappy coworkers suck too. I use to have one that would constantly tell me I was wrong in front of customers at my old job. I worked in financial aid for college and this one guy just started, never did financial aid before and was still being trained but he LOVED to jump in while I was explaining things to people. I would explain to someone SAP policies just what it was, and he would but in with information that was either accurate, but I just hadn't gotten there yet (can't explain the WHOLE processes in 19 seconds). or he would jump in with information that was NOT EVEN SORT OR CORRECT! And get mad at ME for telling him he was WRONG! I had been working there for a long time. He was just a douche. I'm glad I no longer work there. The people looking for financial aid could be a nightmare.
I get it's annoying, it's rough, and sometimes you don't get as much as you thought you would. However; that does not give you the right to YELL at the girl at the counter and call her names because she can't suddenly tell the government that the pell grant doesn't even cover tuition and the loan rates are too high. Also, I'm on financial aid, if I could fix these things, don't you think I would?
/rant

ANYWAY!

Best way to deal with the annoying co-worker is ignore them. Pissed him off when I would just keep talking like he hadn't said anything. Or worse, instead of telling him "by the way... you're wrong a student CAN'T get financial aid while ON SAP, they can only get it if it's been disputed and approved" Instead I would look at the student and say "Some people in our office are mistaken by saying that a person on SAP can get financial aid, what they really should say is...." Would piss him off so much. He started to back off right before I quit for my new job.

I can totally relate. Relationship issues, 8 pound gain in 2 weeks... bleh. I just keep telling myself there's nowhere to go but up. You just need a good day or two to get back in the swing of things and feel more confident in yourself. You've got this!

You know what's incredible (besides you guys, of course)? A workout. To be honest, it was kind of a crappy workout, but a workout nonetheless and I actually feel a LOT less cray cray than I did this morning. Whew. On paper, my life is still tricky right now, but I don't feel like killing someone. HA!

Who wishes that they could bring their pets to work with them? I DO! Awh. I miss my kitties!

Kurisitaru, that's crazy about your insane co-worker! What a JERK. I'm glad you stuck it to him before you left. Don't you love it when you have brilliant moments?

Djs06, how are you getting through? Any coping strategies that work for you?

I definitely wish I could bring my kitties too! Although they would probably not be too happy to be here away from their (my) bed. lol.

As for strategies, still figuring that one out myself! Just putting one foot in front of the other is all I've really got down as of right now. Glad you got a workout in! I was going to suggest that as a strategy. I also find that yoga feels great and also feels like 'me time' where nothing else can bother me. I also packed my lunch ahead of time for today (my office moved and it's near a lot of food places, so I've been lazy about this). Doing small things on plan is what helps me- I just keep telling myself that I might not be able to control everything that is going on around me, but I CAN control what I eat, exercise, and how I feel about myself when I treat myself right.

Thanks Djs06 (i.e. Dana)

Today I brought my lunch, stayed on schedule, on plan, and got a workout in. You're 100% right...control helps. Hopefully another few days of this will get me back on track - that is, of course, until I fly to DC to celebrate my friend's bachelorette weekend. Yeesh. A girly weekend full of yumminess and drinks is kind of like yoga...right?

I'm just going to be totally silly - here's my new favorite stupid joke.

A skeleton walks into a bar and asks for a beer. And a mop.

Lin