Week 18 - Just Saying No

Or that’s the plan anyway. It was another maniacally busy week this past week, with things scheduled back to back in almost every spare minute I had. Work had been stressful at the end of the previous week and Monday and Tuesday were more of the same. After work Monday I had a Husker Cats meeting then knitting at the library, Tuesday was water aerobics, which I dragged Connie to, and then dinner at Texas Roadhouse, after which I stopped at Nora’s to pick up the cat carrier she’d borrowed and ended up standing outside talking ‘til dark. I got home at 9:30 and collapsed. It was only Tuesday and all my stored energy from my relatively relaxing weekend was already gone.

The tipping point was an email I got on Tuesday from the President of Friends of the Library where, by the end of the exchange, what had started out as me picking up some computers that had already been researched and chosen by someone else turned into a request for me to do comparison shopping around Lincoln for a better deal. I read that and decided then and there, I’m just going to say “No!” To that email and as much else as is humanly possible. Let me tell you though, that’s easier said than done.

I had a hair appointment on Wednesday at 5:00 so was actually home early and was finally able to start working in the yard. I got the strip between the sidewalk and the street, which is called “the parking” in Nebraska, all cleaned out and clipped back so the front of the house looked much more presentable. Thursday was water aerobics again and a nice relaxing night of TV (gotta love Survivor!) Friday was another good night of post-pool food shopping and TV watching. I could get used to this.

Saturday dawned warm and gorgeous so I spent the entire day in the backyard, making a big dent in my gardening. I felt good about what I’d done but there’s still a daunting amount left. I went to bed feeling tired but in a good way, hoping I hadn’t done enough to make my knee act up. I knew I had to get up early and get all my weekly chores done and have tea ready for 2:00, when Nancy and a woman she’d met at a beekeeping were coming over. I cranked and got everything done and had a batch of blueberry muffins baked and all my china ready to take out to the deck. The woman was lovely and we had a great time. But here’s where I failed my first “just say NO” test.

When Melissa left, Nancy and I were chatting and I told her she could have plants from my yard. She wanted them right then and I said, very wimpily, “I’m not up for that now.” Yeah, like that worked! Before you know it, Nancy was digging up plants and I was searching for pots and bags. Since I had wanted no part of it, I was not happy and became a caustic, passive-aggressive bitch. When she finally did leave with the few plants she’d dug up, I sat and wallowed, pissed that I’d been such a pushover and that I’d taken it out on Nancy. I hadn’t finished wallowing and Connie arrived for the night, having arranged to stay over earlier in the week since she needed to be in Lincoln both Sunday and Monday. I was too tired to make more than bacon and eggs for dinner and then Connie and I chatted until bedtime. The plan was that she would sleep in so I could get ready for work and be out the door before she was up. I was hoping for a full night’s sleep. Ha!

At bedtime, Wrennie, my noodge cat, wasn’t in her usual spot. I didn’t give it much thought and went to bed. Well apparently she was locked in the spare room with Connie. The cat woke up in the middle of the night and, not being able to get out of the room, took a big old dump in the middle of the throw rug. I woke up to lights blazing, the toilet flushing and Connie asking if I had something to spray for the stink. She had already cleaned it up but had the rug rolled up in her hand. I did a totally white trash thing and threw it out the front door and attempted to go back to sleep. Fat chance! Connie was sleeping like a baby and I was wide awake at 4 something in the morning. I finally got up at 5:30 and was too exhausted to do my normal blog post – please accept my apologies, Sharyn. I watched some TV and headed to work in a semi-comatose state to face my first full week of saying NO. Stay tuned for next week’s post and we’ll see how it went. Wish me luck.