So HF made me write a list of affirmations.  Cheesy, I know- but surprisingly effective.  Everyone needs an anchor sometimes, and right now, mine is affirmation number one: I am an overachiever.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the affirmations, but that’s the one I’m leaning on right now because gosh darnit I am having a bit of a challenging week. Our staff have been on stand-by for a move to our exciting new office, and due to bureaucracy and an unsigned MOU, the move has been postponed until AllahuAalim.

My kids are home from school on winter break, and while they’re in the process of rediscovering things like creativity, imagination, and the ability to entertain themselves without maternal intervention every five minutes- I’m not getting much work done.

On top of that, someone, somewhere must have sneezed in my general direction, because now I am incubating an exciting new infection.  I’m hoping it decides to stay in my throat instead of bunkering down into my lungs where- historically speaking- it declares the Free Lungs of Bronchitistan to be independent from the oppressive forces of The Body, and a civil war ensues.

(I cough. My lungs try escape. I try to keep them in.  It’s very ladylike.)

So yes. I am an overachiever.  And you know what I’m going to do with that? I’m going to take my work setback, and the inevitable disappointment to the staff, and the pair of lungs that are trying to fight their way to freedom and I am GOING TO HAVE A GOOD DAY.  Or else.

Or else?

Or else I’ll have another cappuccino and another cup of chicken and mushroom soup.  And that’s a threat.  I’m sitting in a coffee shop right now, trying to derive warmth and can-do attitude from one small, sad cappuccino with steam and sugar.  I’m hoping to combine its forces with the cup of soup I just had from Chili’s, because the problem with being sick and a mom is that you’re supposed to make your own soup.  And if you don’t feel well enough to make yourself soup, then you don’t get soup.

(Unless you sneak out for soup when no one’s looking, in which case you might end up in the mall, feeling kind of sick and alone but at least well caffeinated with a belly full of warm soup.)

I am not a dementor.  I am not a negative, pessimistic person with a mopey sulk on my face that drains positivity and energy from other people.  And that’s one of my affirmations too. So even if I am feeling down or negative, I refuse to pull other people down with it.  Yes, I may feed my negativity soup, but I will not turn around and feed my negativity to other people.  So where was I?

You know how when you’re sitting in a coffee shop alone, and people walk right up to you (because your table is blocking the cream and sugar) and you’re half afraid it’s someone you know, but half hoping that someone will sit down and cheer you up?  Yeah- that’s pathetic.

I’m that pathetic right now, but not for long.  Within the last year alone, three people have independently referred to me as Mary Poppins, and I’ve been hearing this throughout my adult life.  You know what it means to be Mary Poppins? It means you have freakishly unsinkable cheerfulness- not all of the time- but at least for enough time so that people think unsinkable cheerfulness is your default.  I am a friggin Mary Poppins.  So I’m going to take my pre-bronchitis sulk back home to where there’s wifi- because this coffee shop’s wifi won’t connect- and I’m going to open a can of directorial whoopa$$ on my inbox.

And then, I’m going to bake a chicken.

And then, I’m making soup.

Because I’m an overachiever.  Alhamdulillah.

By Abez, The End.

(PS- HF, I love you.)

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