The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I think I need to buy all my godchildren and nieces the Judith Voist book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Why? Because I'm thinking I need to re-read it myself to see how it ends. Today, dear reader, I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. First, I decided to email the recruiter at Disney about the position I interviewed for only to find out that their number one candidate is coming in for an interview this afternoon and if it goes well, they're going to extend an offer to her. Then I started to get emails from the Writers Guild of America and some lawyers about the automatic arbitration that is currently happening in conjunction with one of our productions, and it seems I made a mistake and sine the mistake I made was with the craziest of the crazies, I'm going to have to pay, pay, pay...and email the company's lawyer every action I've made since 2006 with this project. If I ever needed a hope of a new job, today would be the day.

Most people probably notice ebbs and flows of bad times and good times. I have noticed, however, that all my bad times come together. Like when one famous person dies, we all wait for two more to drop. This expectation of bad things cause me stress. Bundles of stress that make me want to throw up and cry all at the same time. For the most part, the boredom of my life can overwhelm me with ennui, but when the bad times come, I want to duck and take cover, and I long for yesterday when my biggest concern was whether to get take out or make dinner. Literally, I don't want to walk outside today. I don't want to drive. But since my book is still out with an agent, I'm just going to assume that that's the last of the bad things. I'll get rejected at some point this week. Better now than later, however. I would hate for that to be a harbinger of more terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

And Now I Know

Things I've learned this week:

*Martha Plimpton of Goonies fame and recently of Raising Hope is Keith Carradine's daughter! What!

*My godson is actually three and not two. (Good thing I caught that one before sending out the "You're 2!" birthday card.)

*I love dark and dreary days now that I live in the land of perpetual sunshine.

*Johnny Depp is 47! FORTY-SEVEN!

*I can go three days without my cell phone and not notice. (I left it in a purse I used over the weekend and only thought to look for it today.

*George Washington wrote about a two party system, "the alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism." Which means the contention in the nation's capitol has been going on since the first presidency, and I shouldn't be all that alarmed.

*George Washington had dentures made out of the pulled teeth of his slaves. Erm...

Stress Me Not

Hear ye, hear ye! I'm back on track! This is the 41st week of the year and this is my 41st post. I'd like to thank the month of July which allowed me to catch up and get a bit ahead. Thank you, July.

I had a face-to-face interview at Disney yesterday, something I've known about since Friday. What I've come to realize is that I don't deal well with stress and anxiety. Over the last few days, all I've been able to eat is pasta with butter, toast, cheese sticks, and sometimes I could force down chicken; but for the most part, I was sick to my stomach all the way down to my lower intestines. Gurgle, gurgle.

This is not something I've dealt with my entire life. I used to get butterflies in my stomach when I was younger and forced to give a class presentation. When I hit my teen years, my stomach would clench whenever I was forced to speak in public (and not in a cheerleading uniform). But about ten years ago, when I first had to stand up in front of a romance conference and pass myself off as a professional, I spent nearly three days in the bathroom afraid that whatever I put into my mouth wouldn't stay there. The pinnacle being the hour that led up to the moment. I was stuck in the bathroom listening to all those women talk about me without knowing who I was. About three years after that, I was lined up for my sister's wedding procession and had to duck into the lavatory at the top of the stairs, my mother shouting for me when it was just about my turn. Any big moment in my life now seems cause me to lose my lunch or at the very least dry heave. So, when I got the phone call that the Senior Vice President wanted to meet with me and promptly started to receive paperwork that would verify my employment should an offer be extended, my esophagus closed up and my GI track shut down.

There is one silver lining to this terrifying phenomenon: I think I lost five pounds in four days!

As for Disney, cross your fingers one and all. Just remember: If I get this job, I get free park hopper passes to the parks! There's something in this for all of us.