The Happiness Meme--Day 1

[earlgreytea68]

I was actually just coming onto LJ to say that I need to take a sabbatical. I have been clinging, so hard for so long, to this idea that I can still be something other than a Lawyer all the time. But it turns out it isn't so much true, and, as terrible as my life has been lately, it's about to get much worse, and the next two weeks are apparently going to be swallowed in an onslaught of days when I won't be allowed to sleep and I will be stuck in the middle of nowhere with people I despise who treat me like an indentured servant. My life is basically a series of outrageous tasks like you'd find on a reality show, only there's no chance of a prize at the end. There's a possibility I'll return sooner, but for now it looks like I won't be allowed to have a life again until February 1, so I sadly have to leave you for a bit. It's like going on hiatus for Eurovision or something.

And I jump online and find jlrpuck  has tagged me for this meme:

THE HAPPINESS MEME
Rules: For eight days you have to post something that made you happy that day. Tag eight people to do the same

Hahahahahaha! O, the irony! Because I actually was having an excellent day today, until around 9:04 p.m. And this is because my job has me bugged. As soon as they hear me make a plan to do something non-work-related, they make sure to find some reason I have to be at work during that time. As soon as I express affection for some task I've been given, they make sure it is taken away from me. And as soon as I start to sound the way I used to sound, happy and enthusiastic and maybe a little hopeful about the future, they make sure that they send me the world's most depressing e-mail reminding me that I belong to them and who told me I was allowed to think about something other than work for even a little while. So, sorry, I'm not doing this meme. Not right now. It's got to wait until February 1. It just has to. The idea of coming up with something I'm happy about tomorrow and the day after and the day after, all these carbon copy days of horror that I have in store, is just another thing for me to stress myself out about. So I suppose the general thing for me to be happy about, for the next eight days, is that this isn't my job all the time, or even for the rest of my life. This is just NOW, and time, thank God, moves. It always keeps moving. And someday I'll wake up and twenty years will have gone by and I'll wonder why I thought this was never going to end. That thought makes me happy. And, after February 1, I will finish all seven days of this meme, I promise.

Here's the happiness for today: Tetris with arctacuda  and bscotchpuma . Well, mostly bscotchpuma, because arctacuda doesn't play Wii. But I am SO GRATEFUL I went to their house tonight. It did me a world of good. Thanks, guys!

Comments

[tripocket.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it's so bad right now. Please take care and we'll be here when you get back. (We will of course miss you while you're away.)

*hugs*

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate the hugs. They made a huge difference.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yes, some magical day, I will find another job, and I will leave these idiot people to their idiot employees.

[bklyangel.livejournal.com]

Sorry about your sucky day.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I appreciate it.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! Everyone's hugs were really so comforting.

[yanks-02.livejournal.com]

So sorry you are having such a rough time of it. Take some time for yourself and figure out something that will make you happy. That's what it's all about in the end... just being happy! *squishes*

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And yes, happiness is by far the most important thing.

[unfolded73.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry you're going through this. Believe me, I know how it is. I've taken leave for now, but I may have to go crawling back for financial reasons, and that terrifies me. I know that sometimes you have to stick it out in a shitty job, I get that. But no job, no amount of money, is worth your mental health.

That being said, your LJ sabbatical is a reasonable choice. We'll miss you and will be thinking good thoughts.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yes, any time the bloody economy wants to pick up so I can find a new job would be pretty awesome.

The sabbatical helped. It was nice to have one less obligation to deal with, and I'm feeling much better now.

[fid-gin.livejournal.com]

Oh man...I despise my job as well, but it doesn't sound nearly as bad as yours. Please accept this hug from the Doctor and Rose!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

A wise person once told me that it's okay to have a job you don't love, but it's not okay to have a job that doesn't leave you anything else to love.

[frakup.livejournal.com]

A pox on your evil overlords! I hope it won't be as bad as you fear, and when you return you have something to be happy about.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I do have something to be happy about! Never working with these people again!

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

*hugs* for you and baseball bats for the Minions of Evil that have enslaved you! (Note that I am using my Blue Whale of Happiness icon to remind you of your very fun whale watching trip!)

One thing I disagree with you about: "I have been clinging, so hard for so long, to this idea that I can still be something other than a Lawyer all the time. But it turns out it isn't so much true"

You are a wonderful & wildly talented writer who is temporarily trapped in an unpleasant alternate universe.

Take care! We will miss you & be so happy to see you back!! :)

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the reminder of my whale-watching trip, which was so very hard!

And yes, I continue to insist that I am more than a lawyer. It means an endless battle of wills, but I've regrouped now and have a bit of strength to re-engage.

[madeelly.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry about your job. Both my parents were/are lawyers, and my mother was a big shot tax lawyer for some insane Boston firm, and I never got to see her. I still don't.

But yay for happiness and tetris! And sorry about life being not happy. *pouts and hugs you*

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yes, the law is a terribly demanding career, from what I can see, and probably not well-suited to my personality type. Ah, if I knew then what I know now.

[maypanic.livejournal.com]

You will be missed, but please do what you gotta do to preserve some piece of sanity. None of us want your presence here to become an obligation or burden instead of a joy.

Find the time, even if it's just a minute here and there, to breathe and block out the world with a hot beverage.

And for heaven's sake, don't feel you need to respond to every comment left here! I, for one, would just feel guilty for trying to encourage you and thus adding to your list of things to do!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Never, ever feel guilty when you leave me a comment. The problem with my to-do list is not that LJ is on it, it's that a bunch of stupid things are on it on top of LJ.

[orelle-peredhil.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry that things are so awful right now. Good luck over the next few weeks and I really hope that things get better for you soon. Take care.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much.

[crimedoc1.livejournal.com]

Ohhh... your job sounds totally awful right . We're all here for you - if there is ANYTHING we can do to help, just yell. I for one am already looking forward to the end of your LJ hiatus - and not just because of your fantastic fic, but because you yourself are fantastic!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I really do appreciate it.

[jellybean728.livejournal.com]

Oh you poor thing. I can't even properly sympathize, because my job is crazy but at least confined to normal working hours. So sorry things are sucky for you right now.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It really helped just to have so many supportive comments left for me.

[starlightmoonla.livejournal.com]

Awwww *massive hugs* I'm so sorry that you're having a rough time of it with your job again. I cannot imagine what you have to go through.

We're so going to miss you while you're away but we'll be happy to see when you come back. Take plenty of care of yourself and definitely remember that you won't be going through this forever.

And btw, Tetris is a hella lot of fun. I didn't even know it was on the Wii, which makes me want to buy it even more. ^_^"

Good luck. :) *hugs*

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Oh, you should go for the Tetris on Wii! It's awesome!

[rattus-aerius.livejournal.com]

I commented awhile back that I'd come there and kick your boss's ass if you want. The offer still stands. ;)

But seriously take care of yourself. Stuff like this isn't worth ruining your health.

Ten sends delicious cake. With edible ball bearings. :)

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I thank him for the cake!

[themusecalliope]

Dear Heavens. I don't know that much about your specific work situation, but in the absence of said specific intel I am wishing for you to get headhunted, or some such, very soon for a fabulous new position. Either that, or a mysterious distant relative sending you a huge monetary bequest.

Or...the Doctor blowing up your job while you sleep tonight in such a way that you get a nice long paid vacation.

These are my wishes for you.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Ooh, any of these would be a fantastic wish to come true!

[salimali.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I'm so sorry that your job is so s**t right now, its always horrible when you feel as you do. Take care of yourself and we'll all be here with hugs and good wishes when you return x x x

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[glorious-clio.livejournal.com]

Oof!! Please take care of yourself. Honestly, LJ should be the last of your worries. I hope things go smoothly for you, and I hope you can find a new job that doesn't treat you so terribly.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I hope so as well!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I am so sorry you are having such a horrible time at your job, that it is such a miserable place to work, and that they are not allowing you to have a life. You deserve so much better than this!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! I keep sight of that, and cling to it, and know it will eventually be better. I'm too awesome a person! ;-)

[viewaskewgrrl47.livejournal.com]

And how's that job search going? Not all law offices treat people like yours does or nobody would be a lawyer. I hope you find something better really really soon because it's awful to hear of such a lovely person being treated in such a horrid manner.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Well, the truth is that lawyers make a lot of money precisely because the only reason to do this job is for the money. Law firms lose on average twenty percent of their workforce each year to jobs that are not law firm jobs. So, the job search is going, but very slowly.

[prynne12.livejournal.com]

I am deeply, deeply sorry that you're about to trudge through what sounds like the Valley of Death without the benefit of fearing no evil.

However, I'm lighting candles that it all gets better and that you get a reprieve.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think the candles helped!

[k-puff.livejournal.com]

Question... if I send you new chapters of "Chaos" recordings, will you still be able to put them up here? ^^;; I'm in the final editing stages of Chapter Two right now, and I want to have Chapter Three (and hopefully Four) out by Valentine's Day.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

If you get them to me, I'll find a way to post them. I should be around, I just didn't want to guarantee anything, my life is way too uncertain.

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

(sigh) I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. But each day is another day closer to the the last day you'll have to do it.

Do what you need to do. We'll be here when you get back. :)

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And taking it a day at a time really, really worked.

[chicklet73.livejournal.com]

Tetris is a great source of happiness. So is St. Anthony. And David Tennant.

I wish I could wish your terrible job away and replace it with a brilliant, fulfilling one. *hugs from me* *sympathetic tail-wags from Scooter*

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

David Tennant is extreme happiness, it's true!

And please tell Scooter I appreciate his tail-wags!