@Casey – man, I am so so sorry that your week was so full of hard and suckiness. And physical pain. Ugh. Horrible. Broken ribs? Getting fired? TOTALLY UNFAIR.

Big (cautious super-gentle non-rib-touching) hug to you. I’m hoping this week is way less awful. Love to you and the hippie husband.

@Caryn- thanks for the suggestions. I will absolutely follow up with this. Totally appreciated!

@Karinne – yay! Let’s hear it for low-drama! And holding boundaries. Awesome.

@Leocadia – quince jam! quince jam! And yes, I don’t know *anyone* in their 40s or almost 40s (and that’s a big chunk of who I know) who actually knows what they want to do with their lives. Sounds extremely normal to me. :)

Hope the conversations help clear things up and give you a good feeling about possible directions.

Kisses all around. Thank you for chickening with me. It really, really is my favorite part of the week!

The Hard: despite declaring it to be a week of rest and low-drama, there were still two occasions which made me throw up my hands and declare that I just.want.one.week.of.peace.

Stil not knowing when is a good time to discuss practical things, like finances and living arrangments, with my partner. He’s got a lot of hurt and stuck to work through on those issues, and shuts down if they are mentioned in a time or place that he’s not comfortable with. However, not being able to discuss it is stunting my ability to get on with life. Tough one to work out!

Realising my diet has shifted into the unhealthy end of the spectrum, and I’m starting to panic about what this means and how I change it and trying to not listen to the voice in my head that is telling me I’ve never been successful at it in the past unless I put myself through a period of high acute stress. Need to find a more sustainable solution.

The Good: declaring a week of rest and low-drama, and mostly sticking to it. I’m feeling so much better, refreshed, recuperated, with a bit more perspective and ready to tackle life again.

Noticing that the two times that serious drama did come up we actually dealt with it in a much better, less drawn out way.

Generally feeling more loved and more secure, as well as more connected and grounded for the first time in months (which led to one of my most heart-felt blog posts/communications. Yay!). I really missed that feeling.

Having a good night out with new friends on Friday night, and gently holding my boundaries and dignity with someone who is not very respectful of me.
.-= Karinne´s last post … Philosophy and Practice of Communication: awareness and compassion =-.

However, the Portland Postmaster can, since mail theft is a felony offense. You would be shocked how seriously they treat things like this.

First, you need to file a police report. Call your local precinct’s non-emergency number.

Then you have to file a separate report with the USPS Postal Inspector.
You can call. The nearest postal inspector is in Seattle. Their number is 877-876-2455. And their address to mail complaints to (since it seems that your complaint wouldn’t work with their online form):
POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE
PO BOX 400
SEATTLE WA 98111-4000

Please do not waste time with the BBB any more.

SOmething more interesting & perhaps helpful would be to contact the consumer advocate at your local news stations. They might be interested in doing a story on the vanishing mail. They could interview Selma!

So, here’s my Friday Chicken on Sunday:

+ Chatting with little Sister about life in a lovely café
+ Knitting night in my local yarn shop
+ Being able to decide to go back to bed and sleep two more hours when it was needed and feeling way more awake afterwards

+/- Shiva plateau. Which probably has a reason that I haven’t figured out yet.

- Procrastination
- More procrastination
- And yes, even more procrastination
- Which might have something to do with the job uncertainty, which I shouldn’t worry about according to my supervisor (who has no decisive power over it).

The hard:
- weather here decided to skip autumn and went from summer to rainy-winter-weather in two weeks. Knocked me on my butt, healthwise.
- work. I in general love my job, but this week was less than spectacular. Gotta do something about that, but still struggling.
- still lonely.
- angry with a friend. What’s worst, I feel as if it’s my own fault and that makes me even more angry with myself. Lots of triggered “BAD GIRL!” stuff.

The good:
+ OILPAINTS! I spontaneously put down the money for an oilpaint starter set and a how-to book and now I’m mucking around with traditional paint for the first time in my life it’s so fun! :D
+ got the wireframe design for my webpage down: Huge relief.
+ Video games! I love them. :D
+ new shower head. My old one was broken and not much fun. Part of fix my life.
.-= Carina (@chalcara)´s last post … Abandoned Powerplant; photos of =-.

The Hard

I had not recovered from the bleurgh of last week before embarking on this one. Result: I got up at 5.45am on Monday and took a five hour train ride to York for a two-day meeting, arrived, felt awful, got back on the train. Got home just after 8pm.

i took tuesday off, this stress just piles on my physical self.

i worked wednesday and thursday, struggling through both.

Friday I woke up having a full-on physical stress-out which manifested as heart-burn with spasms in my chest and ribs. i called the day off and stayed in bed.

It’s saturday and I am relaxing but i know it’s sitting there waiting for me on Monday.

The Good

My wife is very good and looking after me. she went to the shops and came back with Lucozade and Heinz tomato soup (a very British response to being under the weather), some crumbed haddock for dinner and a carton of custard for me to eat at my leisure.

where i am now: sitting in our snug in my leather chair with Connie my MacBook Pro on my knee, thinking about making changes to my website and planning my work exit strategy.

my counsellor Pat: Doing well Pat, good to talk to.

The unbelievable autumn sunshine in the park next to our house this week. Tuesday i walked through it, wednesday I ran. Absolute heaven.

have a peaceful weekend,

Lucy x

http://www.lucysweetman.co.uk

Ok, I will join in for the first time:

The hard:
- not enough sleep
- not enough time to myself
- still coughing
- winter is beginning to set in way too early
- job issue still unresolved
- getting on my husband’s nerves and vice versa

The good:
- long phone conversation with a friend I hadn’t spoken to in ages. I was complaining that I feel as though I am the only person who at almost 40 is still pretty clueless about what she really wants to do in life. She reminded me that this is perfectly ok, that something will come up and that I should have faith in my individual way.
- mail from a teacher and friend to whom I had been complaining for the umpteenth time about job issue and who just wrote: “What is it you really want to do with your life? Be honest and then we can talk”. Much appreciated direct comment that put me back on the intention-forming-track.
- awesome Phil Glass opera in a beautiful church
- a week in France coming up, only 2 more days at work
- made 10 jars of yummy quince and orange jam

Have a great weekend everyone!