Slow down you move too fast

This has been an odd week.

When I was sick, I told myself on an hourly basis that I had to slow down a little when I got better. Ever since February I've been going full throttle, burning myself out on the pet food recall and never really ramping back down to even something like my previous already-workaholic baseline.

Unfortunately, I had a few assignments I'd pushed back while I was whooping my lungs out, and they were sitting there waiting for me Monday. I took a deep breath and like the idiot that I apparently am, determined I'd do them and slow down, you know... later.

The next day Michael Jensen, my editor at AfterElton.com,  bumped one of the articles out two weeks. He was all worried that I would mind, and I pretended it was a huge imposition but I'd suffer through it for his sake. And then I hung up the phone and thanked any and all lurking deities for the respite.

I blogged a bit, worked on an article due next Wednesday for AfterEllen.com, caught up on a lot of email, blogged a bit more, cleared some backlog at Club Kingsnake, played with the new video embedding system at PetHobbyist, read a really brilliant book I'm reviewing for Pet Connection, blogged a bit more, and had a relatively easy first week back.

I realized yesterday that Monday is a holiday, and called Amy Moon, my editor at SFGate.com and asked if my pet column, which I usually file on the Monday before it runs, needed to be filed today. "Oh yeah," she said. So I stayed up a bit too late last night working on it, and got up this morning to do a final draft. I was struggling with a tough part -- it's a sciencey thing and I have a tendency to assume my readers have PhDs -- when the phone rang again. It was Amy.

"Er, Christie? Your column's actually running on Wednesday this week. You don't need to file until Tuesday. Is that okay?"

I heaved a big sigh and told her I'd try to live with it.

Okay that' s a lie. I had the file shut before I'd hung up the phone.

Usually the universe sends lessons in a negative form, things like chaining you to your bed with pneumonia to teach you that you need to take better care of yourself and intermix a little rest and relaxation with the compulsive workaholic thing.

I'm actually starting to wonder if I might be able to learn something even when the universe tries a kinder, gentler approach. Ya think?

Comments

[Gina Spadafori]

Thank you for not mentioning how someone got all pushy and insisting that you blog more. :)