An Introverts guide to Exhaustion: or When it rains, it pours!

7:45 a.m. phone call from friend as she's driving to work. Get cut off for about ten minutes.

8:05 continued phone call. It doesn't go well. I tell her she's going to be late for work, and we hang up.

8:15 send a few emails, call dad. Refreshed and ready to face the world I prepare to...

9:15 go to grocery store. Agonize over Thanksgiving cards. Who sends these? I bought three. (I may be sending them? this year...) Oh, and I couldn't resist a magazine with Jennifer Aniston on the cover...

9:50 get home, phone rings, talk to different friend, in response to one of my emails.

10:00 cell phone rings. Put home phone down, it is Sally, wanting to know where she should park. It's not street cleaning, oh, yes, (looking at calendar) it is the 3rd Thursday...hang up cell phone.

10:01 hang up with first friend, rush down to move car.

10:05 (I had to parallel park!) Sally and I go inside.

Are you tired yet?

Fast forward: I run into guy from first floor, who wants his container back (he brought popcorn to the party Saturday). He also wants to talk, which I do not, as I have company upstairs! I discover that my landlord will be coming over soon, so I stress about the fact that the foyer still has some clutter, which landlord asked me to remove LAST week. Laundry and cleaning ensues while Sally helps me cope with my chaos.

noonish: Lunch with Sally at Chili's, where a friend from the OD is a waitress.

one-ish: Drive to work, where I work on the CD-ROM order. A few phone calls to my distributor and I discover that she DID send me a fax.

I go in search of fax, track it down where it had almost been entered as a bill even though it clearly says Quotation. (That involved two people--but it could have involved three, so I consider myself lucky.)

I call distributor back, explain that she needs to send the next fax with a cover letter. Yes, I know you circled quotation on the fax.

It is not yet 3 pm!!

Satisfied that I've done enough on the CD-ROM order, I go over to Tech Serv, where people haven't seen me for days so they want to know how went the poster session, and the party...

About 3:45 my cell phone rings. It's Marian! She needs a ride to the car shop to pick up her car. I announce that I have an errand and I'll be back in about 15 minutes.

At 4, I call the library and talk to Nan, saying I'm taking my dinner early and I'll be back at five.

Marian and I go to Wendy's for an early bird dinner.

Around 5, she and I enter the library and meet up with lots of people that haven't seen Marian in ages.

No, the day is not done yet!!!

From 5-9, I do myriad tasks, including bringing co-workers up to speed and being brought up to speed (my boss had to go out of town last weekend to take care of an ailing relative.)

At 9, I leave the library, sit in my car and call my parent's house. Nobody's home, well, except for the rodents, and they can't answer the phone. I leave a message.

I commence to drive home. At about Siebert Ave, I experience what I call the screaming mimis, which is when I just want to scratch someone's eyes out. After much agonizing, I call a friend who reminds me that eye scratching is not the best method of conflict resolution. She says she'll pray for me.

I cross the Allegheny River, finish my ride home, listening to Eric Clapton's 1999 album, Pilgrim.

At about 9:45, home at last. And now you're up to speed too.

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to Light Up Night. I love the fireworks and the whole Christmasness of it...I'll have to play it by ear, I think. Plus, I take the bus down--it's the one time I definately take the Martin Luther King Jr. Busway, which I adore. (Buses go really fast.)

Number of people talked to: At least 5 friends, 1 family member, many co-workers. (round it up to 15)
Number of topics: Myriad. Topics ranged from hair color to fax cover sheets to finding my umbrella (yes, it is still lost!).
Number of people I talked to more than once on the phone: Three.
Number of people I communicated with by more than one type of technology (phone, email, fax): At least 2
Number of people I communicated with by cell phone and then in person:Two.

Being at home, listening to the rain fall on the roof: Priceless!

Oh, and did I mention that our spam blocker at work is down again? So that I had to delete more than the usual "Hey, it's Pam, about the password" or "Meet Pittsburgh Singles!" I even had a few emails that were spam pretending to be from our Computer Administrator.