A case of the stressed out blahs

So I'm a bit of a stressball right now. And I can see that it is completely ridiculous on my part to be worrying about things that aren't even on the horizon for several months, but I'm feeling under the weather today, and I guess that has made me more susceptible to stressing out about random nonsense.

The kids brought home a lovely cold-y/flu-y thing from school towards the end of last week, and apparently today is my turn.

I'm just so lucky I could swoon!

No really, my head is really fuzzy and if I stand for too long I start to get a little dizzy and, well, swoon-y.

It's been a fun day so far, let me tell ya! What with the splitting headache that makes me feel like someone is stabbing dull steak knives into my brain. Or the waves of nausea that make me feel like I'm trapped in a skiff on super choppy waters. Or the weak, floppy feeling I have, where just the effort to brush my teeth or blow-dry my hair left me needing to lay down for a bit.

Oh yeah, and the utter lack of an attention span!

(Well, I guess the attention span thing may actually be pretty normal...)

But I digress. So I feel like crap today. And it's an absolutely gorgeous day outside. And I can't go enjoy these last delicious days of summer because of the I-feel-like-death-on-a-stick situation I find myself in.

So the next logical choice?

Well, have an overwhelming desire to bake brownies, for one. And anyone who knows me knows that I hate baking outside of Christmastime, so clearly I'm not well in the head!

And also?

Start worrying about the fact that you have to take three classes winter quarter, instead of the usual two.

Yeah...

You know, because winter quarter doesn't start until the middle of January. As in, 2014. As in, four and a half months away.

Let me explain.

This is my last year of school before I graduate with my degree in business management and get that little piece of paper that says "Yay you, you're smart!"

I officially have three quarters left, and I could not be more excited about it! It's taken me, oh, about a bajillion years (choosing what you want to be when you grow up is difficult, okay?) but I'm finally here. The end is nigh!

But for whatever reason, my classes worked out kind of wonky, so I have seven classes left. Which means that I either extend my timeframe and take my business capstone in the summer, or I buckle down and take three classes at once in order to be done on time.

I'm opting for the three classes option.

It's far from ideal. After all, the two classes that constitute a full-time load are generally difficult enough, the idea of juggling three is certainly daunting. Each class generally requires at least 10-15 hours of work per week. And that's not counting the extra time required for research and writing papers and taking tests and all that. Those 10-15 hours are just for the reading assignments (the average is a minimum of 50 pages per week per class), the discussion question responses, and the peer responses.

The three classes that quarter are all going to be lower-level electives, so I'm going to try and take classes that are a little gentler on my sanity, but you can't really predict how that winds up, because there is so much variation between instructors. It's a total crapshoot.

So why not just bump the capstone back, you say?

Well, for one, because I want to be done as quickly as possible. And for two, because thanks to a little-publicized policy change that our lovely former president George W. Bush instituted, undergrads can only borrow so much for their degree, regardless of school.

So if you attend a community college? You can afford to go to school for probably ten years before you hit your cap.

If you attend a higher quality school? You barely squeeze in under the cut off.

And for those attending, say, an Ivy League school? Fahgettaboutit!

(Then again, aren't all Ivy League-ers rich to begin with? So like they're borrowing for their education, amiright?!?)

Anyhoodle, so yeah, because I'm squarely in the independent middle class, and because I'm attending a higher quality school, my loan limits will be reached spring quarter. Which means I'm squeezing in three classes winter quarter. And I'll still have to pay a bit out of pocket for the third class.

But it's still cheaper than paying for the capstone completely out of pocket.

That course is freaking expensive!!!

No offense, but you suck as a person

First of all, I just wanted to say that I'm in a much better headspace today. I spent a few days bouncing around inside my brain, and quite frankly, it's a dark and scary place in there!

Lorelei understands

But I've emerged, none worse for the wear.

Granted, I'm still nervous and anxious about Friday, but not in a fetal-position-whimpering-reassuringly-whispering-to-myself kind of way. More in a "alright, fine, let's just do the damned thing" kind of way.

So here we are. Tuesday. Under-caffeinated. Coming down with a cold. Behind in this week's school work. Could really go for a nap.

But instead, I'm going to vent for a sec, then go back to reading about Hinduism for my World Religion's class.

So ever have one of those friends that seem great at first, but then the more you get to know them and the more they come around, the more you realize you actually don't like them as a human being and their presence makes you want to rip your face off?

Yeah.

I'm having that sort of thing happening right now.

Only it's not my friend, it's The Husband's friend.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those jealous, controlling harpies that's just pissed her man is hanging out with someone other than her. No, no.

Even my husband has grown weary of this friend.

See, here's the situation...

So for awhile, this friend was married and doing the whole work/family/spouse thing, and we saw them maybe every two or three months. And that was totally fine. They seemed pleasant enough, and we had a good time hanging out (besides the fact that their children were horribly behaved and would never leave my house without having destroyed something first, and the wife couldn't hold a conversation, which was challenging).

Then, as their marriage deteriorated, we saw them less and less, until finally they separated. Then we only saw this friend occasionally when he was passing through town- again, probably once every couple of months.

This once-every-few-months trend continued for quite some time, until the guy's dating life in his home town quickly dried up (partly because it's already slim pickings to begin with in such a small town, and partly because, well, turns out he's not so pleasant...but we'll come to that). Once the dating scene no longer had anything (or, anyone) to offer him, he began venturing over to our neck of the woods more and more.

Once a month.

Once every three weeks.

Now it's once every other week, sometimes more.

(And he's planning to move over here soon... sweet baby Jesus, help me)

Somewhere along the way, this trend developed where this friend would stop by on his way either in or out of town and I'd end up making dinner for him.

Then it quickly turned into an assumption that on his way back home every weekend he could stop by our house and get a free meal and a bottle of wine.

And then this past weekend, he showed up with all of his kids in tow- not having given us a heads up that all of them would be here, mind you- and assumed that I'd feed everyone.

I was...displeased, to say the least. On top of which, when he got here he dumped his kids off (without consulting me first) to go to the store to get wine (of course) and within five minuted of his children being here I was having to clean up pee in the guest bathroom because his children still can't seem to hit the toilet (and trust me, they are old enough to know better) (but at least this time they didn't pee in the corner of a room, or in the sink, or the garbage can, or a potted plant, or on each other... I kid you not...)

Anyway, I think that all of this- the assumptions, the taking for granted, the feeling slightly walked over- would be tolerable, except for this lovely little personality quirk that The Husband and I began to notice a couple of months ago.

The friend seems to live in this delusional, ironic world where he feels totally justified in making comments and offering advice on any and all topics, and meanwhile his life is an epic tornado of chaos and filth.

Erm...Seriously?!?

He has tried to give me parenting advice on how to teach my youngest son manners (which you just don't do, ask any parent!) all the while his children, as mentioned above, have no concept of manners, are barely potty trained when they are far too old to still be having issues with that, haven't been taught to wash their hands, shower, or have any sort of personal hygiene, and tear through anywhere they enter like it's a free-for-all bouncy house.

And really dude, you want to give me advice on how to teach my two year-old how to remember to say please and thank you?!? Are you kidding me?!? Step off, bro.

And not being biased, but my two year-old has better manners than any of your children, so focus on your own brood and keep your trap shut.

On top of this, he asks constantly if I'm still working out regularly (none of your freaking business, why do you care?), tells me that I need to not let my oldest son eat so much or else he'll be a fat kid (even though he's skinny as a rail and incredibly active, and this friend's kids are all pudgy), comments about and questions my husband's and my eating habits (even though this friend has gained quite a bit of weight lately, literally cannot cook, and wouldn't know a vegetable or whole grain if it hit him in the face), and constantly makes these snarky, belittling digs at my husband, which really pisses me off.

But the worst part?

This friend likes to throw around how much money he makes. Constantly. Like, any chance he gets to bring it up, he will.

He's also totally taking advantage of my husband (or trying at least), yet he acts like he's doing us this huge favor by hanging around.

All of it adds up to a total lack of tact, humility, and self-awareness. And I'm just done dealing with it.

I told my husband I don't want this guy coming around for awhile, because I'm sick of his shit. When he was here this past weekend, I literally had the urge to punch him in his smug face.

I can step back and psychologize the situation and see that this friend is genuinely unhappy in his life, and therefore is probably trying to tear us down in order to make himself feel better. But it's unnecessary, inappropriate, and I'm done dealing with it.

He's not God's gift to the business world.

He's not God's gift to the dating world.

I'm sorry, but he's not all that great as an overall person.

With him being suddenly so involved in our lives, I've realized (as has my husband) that he's not a very nice person after all. No wonder his wife was so miserable! If he makes these comments to me, I can only imagine the misogynistic crap he threw her way.

Stricken

They got me.

I tried to avoid it.

I fought like crazy.

I tried so hard!

But they got me anyway.

It was a three-against-one battle, so the odds weren't in my favor.

But those darn, germy kids got me sick.

So I've been drinking tea like it's going out of style, and tonight I'm making chicken noodle soup for dinner in an attempt to cut this thing as short as possible. I have crap to do, man, and the flu isn't really conducive to reading assignments and case studies and the Teen Mom 2 marathon I have recorded.

(Don't judge)

(Okay, you can judge a little)

(It could be worse, it could be Honey Boo-Boo)

As an aside, I realized with shock and somewhat embarrassment today that I have never made chicken noodle soup from scratch before!

I know!!!

I've made tons of other soups. I love making soup! But for whatever reason I've never made the most iconic soup of all time.

Weird.

BUT! That all changes tonight. I found a recipe that sounds yummy, I got my shopping list ready, and I'm good to go.

Take that, flu virus!