Thursday morning I woke up to the birds singing, sunshine, and blue skies. What a great day to be alive! Although I wondered about the source of the dirt residue in the bathtub, I didn’t let that disturb me. I followed my fairly predictable early morning routine and found time for a treadmill walk. Yeah! I checked my action list…edits, lunch errands; drive out to the West Valley in the evening…all looked do-able.

At some point mid-morning, I heard the bathroom water gurgle. Odd; I’ll inspect—it’s time for a break anyway. I found nothing unusual and returned to focus on the detailed, minute proofreading. Where’s the comma? Why did they use a semi-colon instead of a colon? And must we use passive voice—yet again??? I moved transformed semis into colons. Short spiffy bullet points replaced long-winded paragraphs. The “delete” key became my friend.

By noon, my stomach called out for nourishment and my eyes begged for a break. I gave in. As I sauntered past the bathroom, I gagged. Yikes! What’s that in the bathtub??!! (You don’t want to know!)

Moving quickly from saunter to 70 MPH, my brain went into overdrive… Ack! What’s going on? How? What? When? Where? Why?

Really, who cares about “how”? And honestly, I didn’t care about any of the “Ws”. I just needed help and solutions—NOW! Staccato phrases pounded my head:

  • Need facilities
  • Need alternative workspace
  • Text for help
  • Notify co-workers—temporarily unavailable
  • Need LUNCH!

That’s it! Lunch first—good excuse to go to one of the local restaurants and be served.

But will the repair folks come on time? Who will clean up? Will I need to sleep elsewhere?

Quiet! I yelled at the “Bad News Committee” meeting in my head. I’m going to LUNCH.

Once I could sit quietly, solutions broke through the haze. I found workspace, facilities, and emailed a notification. After a nutritious lunch—I successfully fought the urge for onion rings—I returned to misplaced commas, colons, and verbs in my temporary workspace.

Carefully saving the document, I closed down for the day. I realized the sun still shone and I smiled. There “Bad News Committee” had ended the meeting. The “Grateful Group” was holding a meeting in its place. Friends had helped out. The repair folks completed their job on time—and cleaned up. I could return home at a reasonable hour and realized I could sleep at home. A friend invited me to dinner!

And the birds sang. What a Terrific Thursday!

Photo by SL Henkin

Photo by SL Henkin