Some days are just bad days, that’s all. You have to experience sadness to know happiness, and I remind myself that not every day is going to be a good day, that’s just the way it is! ~ Dita Von Teese

Been a Hell of a Week!

First off, so excited to use a Dita Von Teese quote, she’s truly a fascinating and amazing woman, if you don’t know who she is look her up. She is a true burlesque artist and a force in the fashion world.

What a week, this week we had our largest annual event at work and happily it went very well. We bring several hundred high school students to campus to make them familiar with career technical education programs at our college and let them experience college for a day. It’s a huge event made possible by some really great faculty and student assistants that we have.

Of course the election happened this week. I keep politics off this site so I’ll suffice it to say that the results of this election have hit many people really hard. Regardless of what side of the political aisle that you are on, when people you care about are hurting, it impacts you.

I also had my cardiology consultation this week and the decision not to move forward with my open heart surgery I do believe is the correct medical decision, however it absolutely flips my world upside down, cancels my impending retirement, cancels my Appalachian Trail hike and has left me in a serious quandary with a lot of decisions to make.

A person I really care about had some shoulder pain the other night when they went to bed. At midnight the pain got unbearable and they went to the ER. Turns out, for no apparent reason what so ever, their left lung collapsed and they spent the day in the hospital.

Likely as a result of much of this, my back, which is always a bit of tight muscle ball of a mess, got super tight and painful.

So it’s been a hell of a week but I kind of saw it coming. The election date is not a mystery, the date of my cardiologist consultation was also set some time ago, and so I knew this week had the possibility to be pretty heavy. So what do we do when we see a heavy day or week coming?

We’ve talked many, many times on this blog about self-care and by now, hopefully you have all identified ways in which you can soothe yourself and make yourself feel better. So it’s always a good idea to have those things prepped so that you can jump into your best self-care option when things go south for you. So if your go to is Ben & Jerry’s, keep that favorite flavor in the freezer, if it’s a type of really specific chocolate have a little stash you can access. If it’s a spa day, maybe have a gift certificate on hand so you don’t have to worry about having the cash on hand when you need that spa day.

For me, it’s a range of things. As you all know and could easily predict, there was pizza. I also had pre-planned by taking a few days off at the end of last week and the beginning of this week. So I had a good pizza, I spent some time looking at waves at the beach, I got a massage and have done a whole lot of writing. I also, as I do when things get particular hard, had some conversations with folks I trust. I also spent time working on the remnants of the tiny patio garden, I’ve still got a dozen full-sized tomatoes ripening on the vine, as well as a couple of ripe ones in the kitchen, this makes me very happy. I also decided to make some small changes in my apartment, moved around some furniture, changed my set up and I’m really happy with the new arrangement. And basically I took a couple of days to sulk.

I gave myself permission to do that, when you have something happen that you takes your mood down, you need to process it. Basically, swim in the bad mood, grief or whatever emotion you are going through and process it. It’s ok to do that for a reasonable amount of time. But then, as I’ll start in the morning, you need to get your shit together and start moving forward again. So tomorrow I’ll be updating my resume, making plans for my next steps, setting timelines and some goals. I always work best when I have specific goals in mind and a plan to get there and that’s what I’ll be preparing tomorrow. Then on my last day off from work, I plan to go check out a museum I’ve been wanting to get to and burn a gift certificate at a pizza place in the city.

So my friends, I hope you had a better week than I did last week, but if not, take the time needed to process, practice some self-care and then get moving again, you’ve got this and have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane