Me vs. My Brain

Perhaps this is unfair, but I blame the weather for the general dreariness of moods lately.  True, it has not been cold and there has not been much by way of snow.  This is wonderful in many ways, but it does not make the world a very beautiful picture right now.

Yesterday sucked more than a little bit for me.  I think that I may be hitting a wall in my job search.  Yes, new positions are still showing up in postings, but the overall lack of response to everything I have already submitted makes it very hard to keep plugging away constantly.  Maybe I should take a little break for a week or so to keep my sanity.

Of course, there are other factors.  Stress from my current job, stress about the future, achy joints, lack of sleep and other annoyances play a role in my mental state as well.  Going somewhere to sit on a beach and be served margaritas sounds like heaven to me right now.  But alas, I fear that solution is not in the cards.  I am going to make a trip out to Madison, Wisconsin in a few weeks to visit my brother and his girlfriend.  There will probably be some alcohol consumption on my part, but I suspect that a warm and sunny beachfront will not be part of the plan.

If you would like an illustration of just how off I have been, let me share my evening with you from yesterday.

When I left the office, I was in a very foul mood.  Certain events transpired in the final minutes to cause my thinly worn patience to evaporate.  Thank goodness it was time to leave; therefore, most of my frustration was spent in the quiet and safety of my car. 

I arrived home to my cheerful dog, who never fails to boost my spirits.  When I took her outside for her first bathroom break, I noticed that the snow had completely melted from my front yard, revealing what looked like a verdant field of dog poop.  As a responsible homeowner, I decided to clean it up. 

My first attempt occurred while Lena was still on her leash.  While I was still in my work attire.  This plan did not work as well as I had hoped, so I deposited Lena back into the house and tried again with greater success.

With my yard now poop-free, I went inside to change for our walk. 

A short while later, we emerged from the front door and immediately encountered our first problem. 

For some reason, I neglected to grab my keys before walking out the door.  This was not as tragic as it could have been considering the fact that the door locks behind me automatically.  Actually, in my state of mind, I probably would not have even remembered the keys until the walk was over had my mitten not become stuck in the doorjamb as I left. 

There we were, on the patio, looking at my mitten which was firmly wedged in the locked door.  Luckily my fingers were not part of this problem, so I removed my hand from the mitten and reached into my pocket for the keys.  When I discovered their absence I took a moment to think as the solution was not obvious to me.

I have a keypad entry to my garage which allows me to enter without a remote opener.  Thank goodness.  I also had the wisdom NOT to lock the inner door from my garage into the house.  So with very little time wasted but considerable confusion to Lena, we were able to circle back around into the house, retrieve my keys and open the front door to release my mitten. 

Maybe this is not the craziest story ever written, but to me it illustrates just how much my brain can fail me.  I think that it may be time to start treating it a little better.