It all started on Sunday afternoon, when I thought I'd get a head start on a proofing job.
I think most of the people who read my writing know that I proofread depositions for a court reporting firm in another state. The money I earn goes to pay back debt. Right now, we have my student loans (from a failed attempt at court reporting school), a loan we took out to help pay for a roof replacement, and our mortgage to pay back. There's allegedly a secret clause in every student loan contract that says that you are not allowed to die before you pay back your loans. If that's the case, I will have a very long life.
The job I had was 270 pages and had a hard deadline of yesterday at 3:30. Deadlines are the nature of the business here; lawyers need their stuff back at a particular time, which means the people I work for have to have their stuff back at a particular time.
So, I started work in mid-afternoon on Sunday. I thought, well, I'll just do what I can today, I've got until 3:30 tomorrow. Plenty of time, right?
Then I realized, no, you don't have until 3:30 tomorrow. Because you have to leave at noon to take your son to an appointment at 1 p.m. and it's going to take you an hour to get there!
Cue stress level rising exponentially.
I had thought about asking my husband to start going to the gym with me early in the morning before we both start work (we both work from home). When I added up the amount of time I needed to get my work done before I had to leave, I realized that doing that was just not possible. I couldn't even get to the gym, and it's something I've been badly inconsistent in doing.
Monday morning, I started work around 6:30 a.m.
I finished at just before noon.
I've been using the pomodoro technique; a technique where you work for a certain amount of focused time, take a five-minute break, then go back to work. The particular app I am using tells you what time your job will be done based on the number of pomodoros you think it will take to finish the job.
The app said I would be done around 12:30. When the time was calculated, it included the time breaks.
Remember, I said it would take an hour to get to a 1 p.m. appointment.
I couldn't even take the breaks I needed!
Well, the job got done. I was also able to get my son to and from his appointment.
We didn't get home until just past 2:30. And I still needed to eat lunch.
I spent the afternoon recuperating, then started dinner. I decided to make salmon patties. Quick and easy. :-)
So I mixed up everything I needed, which included putting oil into a frying pan to fry the patties.
I made enough for today and tomorrow.
And afterwards, I poured the hot oil -- keep in mind, the hot oil -- into a glass jar that I keep for that purpose.
In the middle of the pouring, I heard a crack.
And I saw oil start to pour out from the bottom of the jar.
You see, I had forgotten basic science: that when you pour hot oil into a glass jar, the glass jar will break!
My kitchen counter, my kitchen floor, and one of my kitchen cupboards ended up being covered with slippery oil.
My husband sprang into action and cleaned up the mess. After dinner, we washed the dishes (mostly my set of cutting boards) that were in the path of the spilled oil.
Just writing this out is exhausting.
Fortunately, I made enough salmon patties for dinner tonight. There will be no danger of me pouring hot oil into anything.
And I have two more hard deadlines to meet.
While I'm lucky to have work and grateful that my schedule is flexible, days like this can wear me out.
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
