Reality Check

This time of year is usually almost unbearable for me at work. The Busy Season is over for the accountants, and this is the time they need me to deal with their problems. They're tired, crabby, and full of complaints. I'm not blaming them....it was a tough year. I literally spend hours just sitting and listening to people, trying to appease them when I can. I also have a very, very tough Vice President in Chicago that is intent on making everyone's life hell who is causing some major problems. Add to that the fact that I have performance evaluations looming and some unbelievably huge upcoming projects, and it gets tough to deal. Last, I am way behind on studying for my PHR test. I'm going to take it in June. With all of this going on, I'm feeling completely overwhelmed, and it's just starting. It will be like this until the end of August at least.

Anyhow, tonight I decided to take a walk for stress relief and as I was coming home, I ran into Ray. Ray lives just outside of our development and he's turning 90 tomorrow. He's still active, though he's slowed a bit in the couple of years I've known him. I talked to him for a little while. He's still lucid as ever, but he says he's a little depressed. His wife (who is considerably younger than him), had a stroke last winter. She hasn't recovered well and she's "a shell of herself." I have a real soft spot for older folks (much more so than I do for kids). It was all I could do not to get emotional listening to him talk. But listening to him gave me a bit of a reality check. All of this stuff I'm overwhelmed with is just stuff. It's really just not that important. And I'm not going to worry about it. The truth is that I have no real problems. Not like that.

I was baking a cake for my mom tonight (her 71st birthday is this weekend, and we're going to Pennsylvania to see our families tomorrow). I decided to split it into two cakes and give Ray a little treat. It isn't much, but I hope he feels a little love.