People are exhausting

What a day! Just one frustrating, debilitating interaction after another.

It was already a low spoons day - the cat woke me up at 5:30, as usual, but I just could not get back to sleep. I finally got up and figured I would be on time to work for a change.

When I arrived in the parking lot, a coworker came charging over to my car crying. She said she had been sitting in her car talking to her therapist, but she told them she had to go when she saw me. She then spent 20 minutes pouring her relationship drama on me. I tried to say some supportive things: I told her when I got here I had just gotten divorced and I felt very alone - all you can do is keep going until things get better. But seriously, wtf. We are not really friends like that and I don't have much to offer (certainly not as much as her presumably professionally trained therapist). Thank god the wind was buffeting us around and I could eventually use that as an excuse to go inside.

But the day was just beginning. I had about half an hour before I had to go sit at the desk for 3 hours (last summer, we covered reference from our offices - MUCH easier). After a few minutes, I was informed that my 10 am appt had arrived early. Of course that person had no idea that their timing was a major stressor on me, but I really needed a few minutes to get organized and get ready for the 3 hours out front. I gathered my stuff and met with the student, but now I was even more drained.

And there's more. I then attended a really chaotic meeting, where everyone just could not stay on task and we ended up sort of abandoning the effort without getting anything done. I am not generally negative about meetings, but today was not the day for me to try to engage in such a dysfunctional situation. And I just have too much to do right now to spend time listening to people chat about nothing. Argh!

Then, as I was finally leaving the desk, someone came up with cookies and asked me if I wanted some. I've worked there for 3 years and yet some people still ignore that I'm gluten free. Shoving cookies in my face is so unkind. This person wouldn't offer beef jerky to the vegetarians in the office, wouldn't ask our Muslim colleague if they wanted pepperoni pizza. This persistent lack of consideration for me seems pointed tbh.

After this fun exchange, I ran around all afternoon trying to check some stuff off my To Do List. In the middle of this, an event I was working on was scheduled for a time when I am unavailable. Maybe inadvertently, but it doesn't feel that way - my calendar is up to date. I don't absolutely need to be there, but I wanted to be, and I don't appreciate being excluded unnecessarily - there were many options, and it would have be so easy to ensure we picked a time that worked for everyone involved.

After work, I hurried to a meeting, but I got there a few minutes late because of construction on 32nd Ave, which really slowed traffic down. I took my snacks and went to sit at an empty spot at a table, but a person at the table said that spot was taken. So awkward! No one at another table said "you can sit here," so I walked to spot by the wall and sort of balanced my stuff there. Throughout the meeting, you guessed it, no one sat in the spot I was told was unavailable.

That was pretty much the last straw. To say I had no spoons left is a gross understatement. I couldn't wait to be home and not have to be polite to anyone!

Tomorrow is another day to try to make a difference (and try to resist punching someone in the face lol)