Something wild happened to me today

Chapters 21 & 22

Thursday, March 29th, 2007, 4:55 PM

Stress

What a horrible day.

You wake up already anxious, thinking about the work you have in front of you and you don’t feel like it at all. You get to the office and anxiety is in the air, in spite—or as a consequence—of getting there first.

Then the stress begins. The morning stress, that snaps you right out of it. Then the noon stress, that only lets you eat a sandwich in front of the computer screen. And to finish off the afternoon, which somehow tries to get you to stay a little longer.

I hate delivery days, but I especially hate it when they’re right before Easter, Christmas and August. It seems like everyone suddenly goes crazy and remembers they have presentations after vacation, or new business lines to open up shortly, so they need a designer or marketing professional. So they call me.

You pick up the phone and keep working while you listen to the verbal diarrhea on the other end, and nod every once in a while. You can’t quit what you’re doing, because every minute counts and the delivery deadline is dangerously close. When the client finishes talking, you say—in the same pleading tone as a kid asking their mother for forgiveness when they realize that they have messed up—that you’re on vacation next week, and that you’ll call them as soon as you get back to talk about the issue.

You hang up and keep working.

The stress still hangs around, on top and inside of you. And it doesn’t leave you alone when you leave work, or when you get on the train. You only manage to shake it off when you cross the threshold of your home, as if it was forbidden by ancient, mysterious laws from coming in without being invited; as if it was a vampire.

 

Friday, March 30th, 2007, 12:07 AM

At home

The bad day I had was finally written off when I got home this afternoon. As soon as I stuck my key in the lock, my cell phone rang; it was Sara. When I saw her name on the screen, something moved deep down in my stomach, and when I heard the happy tone in her voice, it felt like it had been a million years since I’d spoken with her. The fucking stress hadn’t let me realize up until that instant how much I’d missed over these two short days since I hadn’t seen her or heard anything from her.

We talked a little bit about our upcoming getaway and not much more, aside from the nonsense that only two people in love find interesting and that I’m not going to put down here. In spite of it, when I snapped out of it, an hour and a half had gone by and I remembered my dinner Magda. At that moment in time, I didn’t feel at all like detaching myself from the phone, even though my stomach started to protest.

It was too hard for me to say goodbye, in spite of Sara’s promise to call me again tomorrow, and that made me start to freak out. Thankfully, my neighbor’s delicious dinner and a pleasant, although intrandescent chat, made me forget my worries for a while.

Now I’m going to bed, and I hope I don’t toss and turn too much. Tomorrow promises to be another rough day, and I need to be one hundred percent.