STRESS, part II

On Tuesday I wrote about how stressed I was. Stressed about work, stressed about life, stressed about ice cream. And how this stress was almost all due to MY decisions. I always thought I wanted to avoid stress, but now I’m not so sure! The rest of my week heaped stress upon stress. Here’s how it went.

Instead of churning ice cream all weekend as I had formerly planned (and needed to do in order to have enough ice cream for my party) I decided to go to Michigan and the glorious beach. I mean, who wouldn’t choose the beach and their friends over party preparation? So, in order to keep up with the ice cream schedule I asked to borrow my friends ice cream maker.

Then, I made a new ice cream schedule so I could churn two ice creams every night. I also decided to try churning two in the morning. Make four ice creams at night, churn two and then toss two in the next morning. This did not work! So, I had to go back to the drawing board.

Because I was going to the beach I needed a new swim suit. Which, a new swim suit in July is like looking for a needle in a very scary haystack. I decided I would go shopping on my lunch break (since all my evenings were focused on making ice cream. But then my dear friend Anna came into town and swim suit shopping went out the window in favor of lunch and catching up.

When I arrived at work on Wednesday I decided to clock in at the main box which hangs in the ministry center (about a mile down the hall from my hall) instead of using the computer. The day before I had been reprimanded by my boss (in a nice way) about my lack of time punches each week.

I blame my missing time punches on being easily distracted. When I walk into work it’s a miracle if I get to the computer without someone asking me a question and taking my mind off the task of clocking in. Therefore, I decided I would avoid the gauntlet of questions and distractions and clock in down the hall. But when I swiped my card the computer screen said, “Rejected.” I entered the numbers, “Rejected.”

Great! I was two minutes late clocking in on the computer in my room.

Then I walked outside where my class was playing and Shirley, our consultant from Action for Children, was there. She told me she was there to observe me. Not my classroom, not the teachers in general, just me. Awesome.

At this point it became clear that this was an attack from Satan. My stress faded away and I thought, “It’s on.”

That night, after being observed for five hours, I went swim suit shopping. Nuff said!

After three stores on three sides of Columbus and a tankini I assembled from two of the stores stowed in my car, I went to Whole Foods (because it was right there) to pick up some milk and cheese for ice cream. I discovered that not only did they have Snowyville milk (the same brand used in Jeni’s ice cream) they also had whipping cream (which was sold out the last time I was there). I bought the high quality milk and cream even though it would take an extra step to homogenize it.

So, I got back home at 7:30 and had the challenge of making ice cream in front of me. I used the yummy Snowyville milk and looked forward to trying what had to be a superior ice cream. Alas, I failed to read the milk carton which said, “Shake well.” And both of the ice creams I made failed miserably and put me two whole ice creams behind schedule.

On Thursday the children were out of control. I told them to do something, then yelled at them to do the same thing and was finally forced to walk over to them and demand they follow my directions. At one point I actually told them that though they had never seen me breath fire and they really did not want to see that happen, they would if they continued their behavior.

I left work with four ice creams on the docket, Lora possibly coming over to help and the need for a salad to balance out the unhealthy things I had been eating. After eating my Wendy’s salad I realized I had left my laptop at work. I drove back to work, picked a child’s sweater up from outside to take to the classroom, then collected my laptop and drove home.

At 7:30 I finally settled in to make some ice cream. With one made Lora made it and suggested that we try the Snowyville milk again after I explained the catastrophic ice cream failure of the previous night. I hesitantly agreed and we made Honey Vanilla Bean, followed by Young Gouda with Vodka-soaked cranberries. The ice cream bowls were not frozen enough so we couldn’t churn anything that night. I made Salty Caramel, placed it in the fridge with the other three flavors and went to bed with trepidation in my heart.

Friday morning dawned bright. I finished packing for Michigan, loaded my car and drove to Panera to pick up bagels for Fun Friday (aka feeding my hungry and down-trodden co-workers Friday breakfast). Upon arriving at school (and clocking in!) I took my students outside and breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered they were once again delightful children as opposed to the obstinate ones that had attended my class all week. Water day came and I sat on the bench while the children piled sand on my feet, scraped it off with paint brushes, followed by cool water poured over them. I felt relaxed for the first time all week, ice cream faded into the background, and my vacation rose up to meet me.

And now stress is a thing of the past as I sit in my swim suit, waiting to go to the beach and relax. The sun is shining bright, the humidity low, and the future is all golden and sparkly.