managing stress in a fast-paced world

Can you believe this?

I got a call from the body shop telling me my car is finished and I can pick it up today. I go and pick it up, not even 1 mile later I get into another accident… this reminds me of a bad dream where I can’t wake up.

Just one nightmare after another.

Over the weekend I sandblasted this trailer hitch I bought for my car. I bought it used for about 1/4th the original new price, it looked fine in the photo the seller sent me. Anyways when I got it, there were many, many layers of paint and rust. At first I went and bought some sandpaper and started to sand, thats when I realized the layers of paint, eventually the rust was just too thick to sand.

This is where sandblasting came into the picture. I bought a kit which is really just a spray gun with a big tip, a host to suck in sand and you hook it up to an air compressor. All this for $9.99, along with $4 for 50lbs of sand from Home Depot and I blasted away all the rust and paint in under 3 hours. Then I cleaned the metal with some steel wool and solvent, and it was ready to paint.

Anyways, in the end I just have to say that sandblasting is great, definately get a cabinet or something to keep the sand contained, it really does get everywhere.

Does anyone else believe in the so called quarter life crisis where mid-twenty year olds suddenly feel like there’s more to life? I can tell you that I’ve been there and might still be there, not really sure what to do about it yet. Maybe I’m just hoping it’ll fix itself or something.

I don’t know what is going on, but lately I’ve been more and more of a hot head it seems. Most of the time it’s bottled up and I end up biting my tongue, but still, things just usually don’t bother me so much.

For example, today on the train the conductor came up to me and says, “Can I ask you to move to the back of the train, I have some kids coming in.” I say “oh, okay…” anyways, I go back to the middle car and there is this kid and her father. This kid was so annoying, constantly, “please daddy….” the kid wanted McDonalds, the dad even went to the cafe car and bought her a boxed breakfast. But still, I heard, “please daddy” about 100 times this morning. I eventually got up and moved to the next car. But then I look back into the first car I was in and guess what, it was empty! Really, what the hell is going on here?

Today has been one of those days, I was tired waking up, tired on the way into work and pretty much zoned out all day today.

When I woke up the clock showed 6:02am, I told myself, “okay I am getting up at 6:05″ well next thing I know I open my eyes and it’s 6:15! Crazy, on the train today I laid down and took up two seats, not that it mattered. In the whole car section I was one of two, better than the norm which is just me by myself…

I really should have grabbed my umbrella when I left my apartment this morning. I really lucked out and didn’t get wet at all on the way into work, but I was hoping that it would clear up by the time I go home. Now it’s coming down pretty hard… and me with no umbrella.

“We were extremely disappointed by elements of the MTV-produced Halftime show. They were totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the show. It’s unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime.”

- Statement by NFL Executive Vice President Joe Browne regarding the Super Bowl halftime show