Stress: The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's desire to beat or choke the living shit out of some a-hole who desperately needs it

That's one of my favorite quotes. And fitting, since the last couple of days have been sprinkled with stress. The HB woke up Saturday to a frantic phone call from his mom. His aunt, who lives in Mexico, got a phone call from someone claiming to be the HB saying that he'd been arrested at the border trying to smuggle stolen goods and he needed money now now NOW! The aunt panicked and was about to drop off the money wherever the Fake HB said he needed it, but her husband calmed her down and told her to call her sister (the HB's mom) first. So the aunt called the HB's mom in a panic, which made the mom panic, and she called the HB all in a panic wondering where he was. First, hearing his mom in a panic stressed the HB out. Then, after the HB calmed her down and assured her he was safe and sound at home he began to panic even more. Because obviously someone knew enough about him to know his full name and somehow connected him to his aunt. Since they have different last names, she being his mom's sister and all, it isn't just an A to B connection. There's not much he could do, but he did report it to the border patrol. The Border Patrol Guy said he's heard of four other cases recently, of people pretending to be relatives in trouble, trying to extort money from them. Couldn't these guys just rob a bank or something? It seems like it would be a lot less work than tracking down relatives of victims that live in other countries.

Anywhoo... I stressed a little bit about making these hipster PDA's (full of writing tips and help sheets) for my fellowNaNoWriMo-ers. It wasn't a big Family Crisis Stress, thank the stars, but it was a Last Minute Rush Stress, and that type of stress can be tiring. It was a fun stress, though, and I really enjoyed making them. I still didn't know what I was going to write my novel about, but after meeting up with fellow NaNoWriMo-ers later that day, and hearing that I wasn't the only one who still didn't know what to write about, I felt better. I felt just a little stressed over the fact that I HAD NO FREAKING CLUE what to write about. Sigh. But it was okay, because I still had a couple of days to think about it. No need to stress.

Sunday was full of homework and... what the hell did I do Sunday? I watched tv (including a three hour made-for-tv movie about Lord Byron) and... a bit of homework and... sheesh, I think that was it. Well, at least until later that night. The HB got off of work early (yeah!) and we went out to the Sizzler for dinner. When we first moved here, about five years ago, we went to this Sizzler and it was AWFUL. Hadn't been to a Sizzler since, but I was feeling adventurous (re: we couldn't make up our minds and I was tired of driving around aimlessly). The food was good. But the food was evil too. I think the shrimps tried to take me out of commission for awhile. They didn't "revolt" (if you catch my not-too-gross drift) but I did spend the next couple of hours feeling like crap on a stick. Bleagh.

Then Monday rolled around and I STILL had NO idea what my novel was going to be about. And I was starting to stress over it. But then, in a matter of minutes, something more important to stress about came along. We're over staffed on my team here at work but for the moment, and for at least another six months, every person is needed. Unfortunately the new boss doesn't see it that way. I don't think he really knows the magnitude of all the crap we need to do for this big Corporate Cookie Cutter Makeover we're gearing up for. So early yesterday morning, just minutes after walking in the door, I heard the new boss (my boss's boss) is getting rid of one of the positions on my team. And the way They think around here, if the position is gone, so is the person who filled it. Never mind that the guy's the most qualified and the biggest asset to the team. His position is gone and so is he. It's asinine I tell ya! The guy is still here though so I don't know how soon the job will be absorbed by the rest of us. I'm a little lot worried because out of all of us, if they decided to keep that guy on and reshuffle everyone else, I could DEFINITELY be out of here. I really could. I know it and it really stresses me out. The other guy that could go, that should go, is the guy that is retiring next year. He hit retiring age a couple of years ago but he has four ex-wives and an expensive model car restoring hobby to support. He says he's going to retire next year, but he's been saying that for a couple of years now, so who knows. But if he is going to retire in a few months, then They keep that other guy on, working on all this work we have to do, until a spot opens. Then voila! Problem solved! It's either that or we loose someone valuable when we have so much work to do on a deadline that we either hire temps or work buttloads of over time. So if this is a money saver issue to make the new boss look good its going to backfire in his big stupid face. Grrrrrrr!!!!!! The guy hasn't been let go yet, so really, I have no idea what the hell is going on around here. And I'm too busy venting to find out. Heh. But I know I could be "let go" at the drop of a hat. Stress!

That brings us to today. The first day of NaNoWriMo. The first day of writing my Next Great Suckfest of a Novel. And I STILL have no idea what I'm going to write about. Well, I have several, and that's the problem. I have several ideas, but when I delve a little deeper into them I realize they're not going to work. I was thinking about two different ideas yesterday, then got the brilliant brainstorm to combine the two into one story. So I'm going to write out an outline of sorts today, a little summary of what the story is about, and see if its something I can ramble on about for 50,000 words. If it its, I'll use those words toward my word count. But I'm going to try and not stress about it because its not worth stressing over. Besides, last year I changed story ideas about four days into the month and still managed to reach 50,000 words. So it can be done. And it will be fun. And I WILL write an AWESOME story about... something. Positive thinking, here I come!

Total Number of Words Written So Far Today: 1,259 (sweeeeeet!)
Number of Words Written That Are For The NaNoNovel and NOT the Blog: 0 (crap balls!)