and then i watched oprah

{i've graduated to the real stuff}

You know how sometimes, you know bad news is coming, and at least you get to brace yourself?  Yeah, today was not that day.  


Today was the kind of day where the bad news comes out of nowhere and just kind of taps you on the shoulder and says "surprise!!"  


The lectures I received at the beginning of my current assignment instilled in me the fear of blogging about work. So I'll keep it simple and vague.  My team is undergoing an internal merger right now.  It is not going splendidly.  Something that I have devoted significant time to has fallen victim to this organizational change.  I am incredibly disappointed and frustrated.  


I stuck around work, not quite sure what to do or how to react (I had some ideas in mind, most of which would have gotten me escorted off the property). Finally I threw in the towel as the nagging headache refused to dissipate and I worked myself further towards an unfortunate temper tantrum. I threw on my flip flops, packed up my bag, and declared that I'd be back when I felt like it (not entirely sure what the time frame is on that).  


I decided some stress baking was in order, intending to send some cookies to my friends in Afghanistan.  I stopped at the Safeway near my office prior to my walk home.  Fresh bread is an essential part of cookies arriving in edible fashion to a place that far away (it keeps them fresh), and yet I walked out of Safeway with sour cream, milk and tic tacs (don't ask, because even I'm not sure).  So I popped in to the CVS on the next block, and strolled around with a new tooth brush in hand, but couldn't find bread.  On to the CVS at the top of the punishing hill on Clarendon Blvd.  I found myself paying for bread (finally!), a tooth brush, and a less than snack sized bag of puffy cheetos (which I consumed in embarrassingly short order on the remainder of the walk home).  


It was at this point that I started to feel like the crazy train wasn't jut pulling up to the station.  It had arrived, I had climbed on, and there was no telling what I might buy (and/or eat) next.  {not only am I stress baker, I'm an angry eater}


I made it home, had a conversation with the door man about my love for cheetos (only the puffy kind, of course), and came upstairs to discover that I was out of butter.  I think I stood forlornly in front of the fridge for 5 minutes pathetically thinking to myself but I needed to bake but I have no butter but I needed to bake but...


Naturally the last thing I want to do when I'm already stressed is jump in my car and go to the grocery, so I found the downstairs convenience store calling me despite its exorbitant prices.  Closed due to an emergency. Oh FINE.  


And then I watched Oprah.  


Well, in case you don't also make a habit of walking out of work at abnormal hours because you hear the crazy train calling, I'll tell you what Oprah was broadcasting today.  The story of a family whose baby daughter received a heart transplant due to the selfless decision of a woman to donate her baby son's organs after he unexpectedly died.  The two families met for the first time on the show.  


Well, let's just say if I wasn't a mess before that...  


I need a drink, and it's finally five o'clock. {and happily, my parents will be here soon to recreate the "cheers" from the picture at the top}