My weekend stress relievers

I woke up this morning and felt like someone had shot me straight out of a nervous cannon. I've had major anxiety all day, and I can't really put my finger on why.

Some if it is book stress I think. I've created a whole 'nother job for myself! I started writing because I love to write, and I ended up writing a book because I had a lot to say. But what is happening now that the book has been published is another beast entirely. The book is personal, so any acceptance or rejection of it feels extremely personal. It's been largely accepted in the places that I've pointed it....everything is just magnified a hundred times. Amazon.com listed it today. But without cover art, so anytime it comes up it's just text and the dreaded "no image available." Pooey. I still have to upload the cover art, and I have to jump through several hoops in order to do that. At least I'll get my exercise.

The weekend was fantastic. I deemed myself the queen of the day yesterday since it was my birthday. I got to eat whatever I wanted (mostly spinach dip and cheese), wear whatever I wanted (my Peyton Manning jersey), and do whatever I wanted (watch football and lounge with Angela). No yard work, no treadmill, and no internet. For the most part anyway. It's hard to spend a whole day offline.

Saturday night we had a few friends over to the house for girl talk. And to watch my Huskers lose against USC, dang it. But it was still good fun. We watched the game, ate a ton, and played pool, and then hung out in the backyard until our anal retentive neighbor squashed our fun. (Not you Oliver! We love you!) We weren't all that loud, but this neighbor would really like to control every bit of her earthly surroundings, and we were slightly infringing upon her beloved territory. I see that in her because I'm a bit of a control freak myself. And I'm extremely bothered by her because I'm bothered by this in myself. I'm plenty aware. But it still made me mad that even on my birthday it was all about her. I'm going to withhold the good-neighbor wave from now on.

I don't think my friends realized on Saturday night how much I needed to be around them. This is probably the most stressed out I've ever been. Well, no that's not true. I've been way stressed plenty of other times. But, this is a time when I really need to laugh and have fun with the people I care about, and appreciate them as an outlet. Angela provides this type of stress relief for me all the time, but even she needs a break sometimes. :-) So thanks, friends.

Tonight I'll try not to curl up inside the nervous cannon when I'm finally ready to go to sleep. That could be part of the problem. I'll try to find the fancy-free cannon instead. Do they have those at Sleep Experts?