Memorial Day Weekend 2024: Stress

This was a rough weekend.

There is a complete madhouse situation at work - I was plunked from my regular work and thrown into a stalled project that I have minimum experience with. The client is demanding and has been very unhappy with the progress of the project . I've been pretty much "thrown to the wolves". 

Yeah, melodramatic, I know.

I have an overwhelming amount of information to absorb. We were technically allowed to be off for the Memorial Day weekend starting at 1pm on Friday.

Nope, I needed to work all day Friday and into the evening.

I also worked on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. To be fair - it was probably about 2-3 hours of work a day, at most. I spent time with the family and we did some fun things, so normally this wouldn't be that much of a bummer. A couple of hours of work a day during the weekends is not terrible (especially because I rarely feel I need to to it, so every once in a while, when there is a hot project, I'm usually OK with that).

This time around - I definitely was NOT OK with it. I was grumpy, resentful, and snapped at the kids when they kept interrupting me while I was cooking (no, really - do not mess with the cook, people! or deal with over-salted, burned, or otherwise inedible food).

The reason for all this unhappiness was that even when I was not working, my mind kept spinning, and ruminating, and agonizing over the project and dreading all the work that still needed to be done. I just wasn't able to compartmentalize and disconnect from the work-induced stress.

Ah well. Moving on.

I keep telling myself - this is not like grad school. I can quit. I can look for another job. Or, here's a thought - I can do a terrible job and the client will fire us and I won't have to deal with this pile of doo-doo anymore. 

Or maybe I'll just do the best I can and let things be what they will be.