T-I-R-E-D

When I was little, my mom had a way of telling other adults we were cranky and needing sleep by spelling out the word tired. Somehow I suppose she expected us to not know what she was saying and she would be able to wisk us off to bed without knowing what hit us. As we got older, naturally, it wasn't hard to know what those letters spelled. In fact, we would hear her use the same trick with our younger brother, and my sister and I knew exactly what was going on.

Years later, we use those letters to describe ourselves and our own children. Being so exhausted that you are to the point of tears or simply have no sense of humor left and are beyond C-R-A-N-K-Y means you are T-I-R-E-D. I feel like I need a t-shirt today with those letters on them. I am most definitely T-I-R-E-D this Monday morning.

I am practicing everything I know this week with The Secret and postive thinking and glass half full. I am having trouble seeing through my calendar and not running screaming for the hills. It can never really be a good thing when you are looking forward to Tuesday... of the FOLLOWING week... for a break and some sanity... can it?

I've thought a lot about busy-ness in RL and SL. I wrote a lot a few posts ago about breaks from SL. I, myself, am approaching a mandatory SL break. I can't decide with that thought whether to be relieved for a break or start the mourning process now. At least there will be email to keep in touch - but somehow that is not the same. Something about those silly pixels.

I spent all weekend getting Bistro Olive @ Marco Island ready to open on July 24 and had an amazing amount of fun doing it. Blissie had her shopping cart out and hauled even the heaviest of items with me. Bigd was more than willing to hang in there and practice positioning things and have long conversations with people about details of the business launch (not his favorite thing to do on SL - thank you D!). Parker shared her ultra top secret search engine strategies. And, Joonie interviewed our first artist, Misprint Tuesday, extensively over lunch on Saturday. Crighton came by after his 8 million hour work weekend and took a tour. Borday and Blissie dined there at least twice and 1 other photographer, Freedom Delgado, came by to consider contributing her art in a few weeks.

It was theraputic. Being creative and being immersed in retail therapy, for me, silly as it is, is a huge helping of R and R. I needed that after a marathon RL trip to PBS the previous week. But, in looking at my calendar, I realize, I will be on mandatory SL time off from this Saturday until the following Tuesday, July 22. RL work is most definitely something this week that I need to pace myself for and will take me and my family to our old stomping grounds in Northern Arizona this weekend, through Tuesday, when I conduct a workshop for preschool teachers on Tuesday evening. Being without internet connection while I am up there is where the mandatory time off comes in.

Sure, I will have my Blackberry. I can blog I suppose from my phone. I can try to steal the neighbors' wireless with my laptop if they have unprotected connections anywhere nearby. But, my mom has been up there all summer and wireless has not been available this year for the first time. I suppose people are finally wise to the fact that bandwidth quickly disappears when people like me are nearby to hop on their connection.

So... it is with heavy eyelids and a few big yawns that I drag myself back to my desk today for a mini-marathon of meetings and to do items before my boss leaves for her own vacation on Tuesday evening this week. As with getting ready for any mandatory time off, I will have to make sure I have the Bistro properly watched over and details all underway for the grand opening reception on Thursday, July 24. For some reason, I know with confidence that Blissie will keep the food well stocked and may even agree to go on her famous AFK breaks in the gallery. I'm hopeful there will be some traffic - but even if there isn't - that is ok. It is more about the fun I can make of it, rather than the destination of events and crowded sims.

I'm T-I-R-E-D but my glass is beyond half full. It is going to be a good week. Things will get accomplished one step at a time. I'm hopeful people will still love me whether or not I'm tired and remember that I try hard to be a team player. I am so fortunate to have a group of close friends that realize there really is no letter "I" in the word TEAM. Hugs to my team members who carry me through ;) whether it is late night carosel rides, sneaky May pole games or crazed running shopping trips on SL, or laughter and silliness in RL. I couldn't do it without you!

And on that note... my Monday morning fog has lifted and I am off and running. Keep this in mind... I think I might use this thought as my mantra over the next few days:

"Do what you love, love what you do, and deliver more than you promise." – Harvey Mackay