Calgon, Take Me Away!

[The title of this post was taken from an old TV commercial advertising Calgon brand bath salts/bubble bath. A woman, after a hard day of work and family retreats to her bath and plaintively cries the immortal, aforementioned quote. I have found the phrase quite useful to exclaim when having a bad day, week, month or year while alas I have never actually used the product.]

Do you ever have one of "those" days -you know, the one where everything seems to go wrong, or even if it doesn't go wrong, seems to knock the stuffing right out of you?
Well, I have had one of "those" except it wasn't just for a day, week or month. (one of the main reasons for silence in blogging lately.) It's not that it has been all wrong, but it seems that since the end of September, I've been pulled in myriad different directions with work being the main culprit. I won't get into the specifics of that, for one it would violate my self-imposed rule of careful blogging practice, however I will say my delight at being released from the "cave" was short-lived as I re-entered it for nearly the entire month of January.

December is usually a lot more laid back for me ever since I decided not to get caught up in the year end craziness. For me, this means I don't do Christmas paegents, I don't shop 'til I drop and I take the entire week before and after Christmas off from work. The plan this year took on a bit more -work demands meant only one day off before Christmas week and although I took time after to go up to Arrowhead, the extreme cold meant less rest while I tended the fireplace fire with frozen, wet firewood. My grand plan to work around my house with the rest of my time off was then surrendered to taking care of a miserable upper respiratory cold. My sickness, which prolonged my stay at home, was then interrupted by phone calls from work, asking me to come in. (Ugh!!!)

That crisis is now over, but there are more (and different ones) looming on the horizon. And of course, there are also those helpful people in my life who like to tell me to my face how what I'm doing is wrong (worse are the ones that go behind my back and complain about me to others, worst of all are the ones who try to get me in trouble with those in authority over me.) [Note to those people out there: I am acutely aware that I'm not perfect, that I make mistakes and I even lose my temper. HOWEVER, I am an adult and your "helpful words" that are beyond minor admonishment to do better, really don't accomplish anything more than succeeding in aggravating me. If you are tearing me down to build yourself up, NEWS FLASH: IT AIN'T WORKING.]

And this is why I say, "Calgon, Take Me Away!"