Why I love living in a big city...
I'll admit I have been more than a little stressed out lately. Well, since the new year when I got saddled with a second job really. Short bursts of stress I can handle. Increasing pressure that goes on for months on end is a little tougher. Especially when you're under-appreciated and over-worked.I can't remember the last time I took a lunch break or had a moment to check my 'elf' email at work. Some of my dearest friends signed on to this neat site called Twitter to chat during the day - basically just little snippets of what they're doing or thinking about at any point in the day - its just a nice way of keeping in touch. I haven't logged in for over a week.
So I apologize...I haven't managed to update my blog and talk about all of the cool things I have managed to do, like seeing my friends Holly and Hoa who visited London from LA recently, hanging out with Johnny and Liz in the Harber mansion, going to the ballet for the very first time (Swan Lake by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House--highly recommend!!), going to my friend Amy's birthday party in Clapham and dancing til 5am, flying to CS for the bank holiday weekend to see my dad and cuddle Piccadilly, joining John and Sony Ericsson in a box for the last Arsenal match of the season (right down from Dennis Bergkamp's box!!!), being reunited with Matt, one of my old friends from Enron who lives in London now, setting up a BBQ in my back garden, and joining a new gym down the road. It is my fault, I don't handle stress well.
Instead of being grumpy about all of the extra work/stress, I seem to just be in denial that it has been happening. I think that is probably because there is no end in sight. The maternity leave that was supposed to come to an end next month (oh how I was looking forward to that...) has now been extended to October. Greeaaaaat. Well, whatever, deny deny deny. I am fine...really.
On Wednesday I was hurrying into work for the first of our 2-week long Q4 presentations to our retail customers. Thankfully they scheduled our biggest customer (HMV) on the first day. No pressure there. As I was walking down into the tube station onto the crowded platform at Fulham Broadway, I started coughing--thinking a piece of dust had flown in or something--but I just kept coughing and I couldn't stop. I kept trying to catch my breath but I couldn't. I moved off the edge of the platform (so I wouldn't accidentally fall onto to the tracks!) and just kept trying to breathe. Tears were streaming out of my eyes (because of the coughing--not because I was sad) and my face must have been bright red. It must have taken me a good 20-seconds to realize 'Shit, I'm having an asthma attack,' - duh! - and I reached into my bag for my inhaler. Phew. Yes, I am FINE. Thankfully it happens so rarely I barely knew what it was. The last time it happened was right about 5 years ago, during the quarter at Anderson where I had both Cockrum and Field Study.
But probably the best part of all was while all of this was going on (a problem that was quite visually apparent), on a crowded platform of nearly 200 people, not one person stopped to see if I was ok, or ask if I needed any help. Gotta love the big city...
Samantha: I'm always surprised when anyone leaves New York. I mean, where do they go?
Miranda: The real world?
Samantha: A homeless man showed me his dick on the way here. It doesn't get any realer than that.
posted by Eleanor @ 7:49 am
2 Comments:
Glad you are not still in the train station suffering from an asthma attack! Hang in with the work load... focus on the fun things like tea & biscuits :-)
-ksj
sounds like we need to get some of those concepts regarding extended leave imported over here! Hang in there - any chance for a mental health day soon?
Lorna
Post a Comment
<< Home