Erratic and irritable
This hasn't been the best of weeks.
Neither have the past couple of weeks.
Been sick, and haven't had enough sleep, and have had major work deadlines (plus it's performance-review time, which always makes me grumpy), and have continued to be way behind on magazine stuff. All of which contributes to my being stressed, which makes me even more easily annoyed/irritated than usual.
In addition, significantly more annoyances and irritations than usual have been coming my way.
So I've been spending a lot of time getting upset about things (most of which are really too minor to be worth getting upset over), which increases my stress levels, which makes me more irritable and grumpiness-prone, and makes me even more likely to flip out over the next minor issue that comes along.
There are a bunch of things that I've been setting aside to deal with when I have a little more emotional stability. I tell myself, "I'll look at that in the morning, 'cause I'll be better able to cope after I've had some sleep and breakfast." And then I don't sleep well, and before I have a chance to have breakfast something else unexpectedly distressing happens. (This is not in reference to anything in particular; it's been an ongoing pattern for the past couple weeks, in a variety of contexts.) Which means I'm not getting some things done that need to be done, which makes me feel like I'm being unreliable (more so than usual, I mean), which makes me more stressed.
I would say I needed a vacation, except that I just had one a couple months ago and I came back from it stressed about how little I got done while I was away.
I'm pretty sure that things will get better fairly soon and I'll return to my usual levels of optimism; that's how it usually works. And even now, there are plenty of good things. For example, I just read the trade paperback of the thoroughly charming and delightful comic book Polly and the Pirates, which I recommend to everyone (or at least everyone who doesn't hate pirates).
But for the time being, I hereby issue a general apology to anyone I've snapped at or been churlish toward lately, and a further apology to anyone who I'm snippy or impatient or grumpy with in the next few days. Service will return to normal as quickly as possible; the mgt apologizes for any inconvenience.
