Stressed Out

I am one of those people who do not handle stress very well. My personality leans towards order and in my life, I tend to plan. So when the best laid plans go array, it is not a pretty sight.

Let me give a few examples from the past week:

On the last day of the out of state music festival we got in the car to come home and the Check Engine light comes on. I don’t know about you, yet for me, car and computer problems are the worst, probably because in both situations I am helpless. My mechanic gave a diagnosis then suggested calling the dealer to see if any parts are on recall. My mechanic also mentioned that the part in question is just needed for emissions and I can put off getting it fix until then, if I chose. The dealer told me if I didn’t fix it my car would blow up.

Full confession, I already had one engine blow up on me and I didn’t want to go through a repeat.

Strike one.

In addition to writing my books, I also teach. I have my semesters planned out and usually about a week or so prior to the start, I check my technology to make sure everything is working. After all, why give “the kids” the excuse that the links failed so they couldn’t do the assignment. One institution decided to upgrade their system. Classes start on Monday and I am still waiting to get my course shell together.

Strike two.

The frosting on the cake came this morning. I have been doing business with a company for almost three decades. I called with an issue and the customer “service” (I use the term loosely) representative told me “as a courtesy I will give you a one-time refund.” I responded, “As a courtesy? You need a better word choice because what you are doing is proving customer service AND as a loyal customer, this will exist as long as I chose to do business with your company.” The conversation deteriorated from there. Never get a customer service rep off their script. Usually they can’t handle the pressure of communicating.

Strike three.

We live in a stressful world. We are bombarded by media by the minute. People overall are more aggressive towards each other. In many cases folks are working 24/7 because they refuse to disconnect from the world.

I really don’t know the answer yet I do know that frustration should not be our normal state. I’m the weirdo who doesn’t drink alcohol, do drugs, or eat sugar. My only vice is to dance. After a very frustrating day, my husband advised we should go to one of the last summer on the beach concerts. My first thought, out of pure frustration, was that he just wanted to go and he couldn’t possibly relate to my situation to even suggest we go out when I obviously have so much to complete in so little time. (Yes, that is my inside voice. Annoying, huh?) We went, only to have the music of the Rivergods calm me down. Life had a much better view after listening to live music.

Maybe that is the key…just listen to the music.

Today I write this at place I bought my car. They are re-diagnosing the problem. I listened to Will Evans Band on the way and stayed calm until the idiot in the Jaguar almost side swiped me off the road. Then I turned off the CD, said a very bad word, and stewed the rest of my journey.

A light jazz plays in background. The music isn’t danceable, yet it is still calming. Maybe one of my stressers will disappear. If not, I just need to find more music.