Helping Others When Having a Bad Day

     Yesterday was a hard day, It shouldn't have been, as after a night of rain Monday, waking up to a  fresh spring morning, with the sun progressively coming out until by mid afternoon, the 68 degree sunny day could only be described as an April gift. I unfortunately had a dark mood day, coupled by a couple challenging situations that surfaced the last hour I was on work time. I'm not sure why so many people I interact with leave raising issues until the end of the work day, instead of when they are first identified. For them, I suppose they tried to resolve on their own, and in not being able to, kicked it up and over to me. They get it off their plate, and I get it left to linger on my brain the rest of the night and upending the start of my next mornings schedule. I need to make a mental note not to do this to my boss. 

     My ear buds decided to be finicky, so I missed a couple statements on two meetings, one of which led to a misunderstanding later. One of my team members, the one I've described before as being often challenging, is particularly struggling with the health crisis, and also does not track topics very well. She has sent a combination of passive aggressive and out right aggressive e-mails to me basically of saying she is being left out of  the internal team dynamics, and is resenting the rest of her team. A recent retiree started a web project, without finishing, and left my programs web pages botched. Basically, nothing yesterday was a crisis, but nearly everything was sort of crap. 

     The nice weather instead of lifting my spirits, contributed to being down. All I could think of was all the things I wasn't able to do and enjoy. After a crap work day, this would have been a terrific night to meet anyone for a happy hour, on an outside table. It would have been a good night for a downtown wander into the shops, maybe stopping for a coffee or ice cream. Even better, a walk with a group of friends, not six feet apart, just laughing. It was supposed to be my book club meet-up. I felt bad for DD2, who took advantage of the day to walk down to the river with a book, but then that is really not part of the "rules." I felt bad for DD1, who had bought a dark chocolate bar, and mistakenly  one with milk fat, so a no go for her. Sometimes you need your dark chocolate. 

     All of this is silly and whiny and childish. I am luckier than 99.9% of folks dealing with impact of the pandemic. Still, I am allowed to have a bad day now and then. I decided to log off shortly after 5:00 anyway. DD1 called me and after telling me about the chocolate, more as an anecdote, asked if I would look for one when I went shopping for my mother-in-law. I was happy to oblige! DD2 called and asked if I would pick her up at the river rather than walking back home (she had walked the four miles to the river), After a couple calls with my MIL, as some of the things she wanted form the add weren't quite what I thought she wanted, I got her shopping done, delivered, picked up DD2, and dropped off vegan chocolate to DD1. I felt better being out of the house and being actually useful.

     This morning when I logged on, a co-worker who is a huge Broadway music fan, sent me this video link, I had never heard of John Krazinski's Some Good News, but this was a pick me up. It feels good being of some help, and on my bad day, I needed to feel good. I'll tuck this away in a back pocket for my next pity party.