Lack of exercise is not the problem

So people tell you to exercise when you are stressed.

I'm stressed. And goodness knows lack of exercise is not the culprit.

I'm stressed because of grants. I, honestly, truthfully, hate grant work. No, that is not strong enough. I loathe grant work. Every time it comes time to submit a grant at one of my jobs, I get a stomachache and have dreams about making a mistake. What makes it nerve wracking is that the process is so painstakingly precise. If you make one tiny mistake, there is a chance that they could reject your grant. This means that a mistake I make, as simply the assistant to the grant submission, could cost my boss millions of dollars.

The grant is due at Mayo, but I had four conference calls scheduled for RLSF today. One got cancelled, but that is still three calls while the emails are piling up at Mayo. That added to my stress.

The other thing is, these physicians are really busy. As a result, a grant is usually really worked on the fourteen days or so prior to the submission deadline. This means that no matter how hard I try, there really isn't an opportunity to prepare much ahead of time. The two weeks surrounding a deadline are just stressful. You try to figure out ways to avoid this, but it really ends up being impossible.

But, like I said, lack of exercise is not my problem. I got up and did my normal 7:30 walk with Tiffany and her son William and Scrubs. We do about three miles I think, but I've never really measured it. Anyways, we get home about 8:15am which includes stops along the way for Scrubs to say hi to various kids.

Then, JB got home around 3:00 and told me he wanted to go on a run without the dog. (Scrubs adds a different level to a run, and he just didn't want to deal with his leash antics. Although, these are getting better since we got a new "gentle leader" leash! Those things are awesome. They go around the dogs' nose like a horse harness and stop the incessant pulling. However, they also cause him to roll in any soft patch of grass trying to get it off his nose. Hey, there's some clovers. Plop!)

Anyways, I digress ...

I, at this point, was on an "I'm majorly freaking out because this grant is due in seven days" overload. So I decided to go with JB on a three mile run. This really did help relieve some of my anxiety over work.

We got home around 3:30, and I started back into work even though I had easily already put in an eight hour day by this point. At 4:30, the doorbell rings. I answer it to find Ashley, a little girl who lives around the corner from me. I've only met her once before, when she came by selling girl scout nuts (I told her to come back when she is selling the cookies!) I ask Ashley if she has the cookies ready to sell. No, she wants to walk Scrubs. She just stands there and waits for me to reply. Ummm ...

I was honestly taken off guard. I don't know her. I don't know her parents. And Scrubs is bouncing off the walls behind us. Ummm ... I start to let her and then realize I obviously can't do that. I start to say no. I can't do that. She's so sweet! So I agree to walk with Ashley around the block. During her walk, I asked her if she had asked her parents if she could walk Scrubs. She says yes, but when I asked her if we could go talk to her parents, she started back pedaling and says she thinks she talked to her parents. Okay, that means she didn't. So I told Ashley that maybe the two of us could take him together some times and that maybe we could talk to her parents at some point to see if they were okay with her walking my hyper puppy. That sounded good to Ashley.

I'm now home after my third exercise session of the day. Still stressed but slightly wound down after a hectic day. I missed lunch with the wives (although Tiffany brought me a great salad and some sheperd's pie that the gals sent over. How sweet is that?!)

We have Bible Study tonight, but I think we are going to pass so I can do some more work and also do some winding down.

I can't wait for October 18 -- the day after the grant is due!