Today was a stressful day. Although I can’t share the particulars, I will tell you that it got such a rise out of me that I could actually feel weird things going on in my body. I speculate that it was either a rush of adrenaline or my blood pressure skyrocketing. Possibly both.

I used to have these episodes quite frequently (dare I say “daily”?) in my early twenties, but I thought I had been managing stress more effectively over the years. Of course, I’m still pretty high strung, but not as riddled with anxiety as I once was. I found it alarming that the old, familiar feeling had returned.

Thankfully, it lasted only a few minutes. However, the residual frazzled feeling lasted most of the late afternoon.

Driving home in rush hour traffic, I daydreamed about getting pregnant, having twins (a boy and a girl) and resigning my job to be a stay-at-home mom to live a perfectly Martha Stewart lifestyle (sans the insider trading and jail time, that is). I think the alarm on the biological clock is finally starting to buzz since I’m finding my mind wandering to thoughts of motherhood more and more lately. It’s days like this that cause me to focus on the greater priorities in life. Things that transcends career, materialism, and mid-afternoon anxiety attacks.

All I can say is “TGIF.”

Working long hours + school = tired.

As a preemptive measure to stave off burn out, I made time to watch an hour of House despite the demands on my time tonight. I’m finding television viewing disturbingly therapeutic these days.

Despite my addictive nature, I have managed to limit my TV watching to House, once a week. Unless you count the occasional episode of Monk that I squeeze in on my lunch breaks with the old gang.

Time for my 8 hours of sleep therapy now. Goodnight.

Jang Su Bar-B-Que (Waimalu, Hawaii)

We just got home from a truly enjoyable evening with our most generous and fun-loving friends. More later. Maybe. In the meantime, go check out my Flickr photostream for more photos from the evening.

Excuse me while I pass out into a food coma. Zzzzz…

An actual conversation between Hubby and I about that “time of the month.”

Me: “I need a hug. Quick. Quick! Quickly!!”

Hubby: “Periods. I don’t know why they call it periods. They should call it exclamation points. Periods are calm. You have exclamation points. Drama!”

On May 9, 2006, I re-enter the classroom — this time, completely online. Hopefully, for the last go-around as an undergrad.

I read this post and all I can do is muster a bitter laugh. Sometimes I overestimate myself. To think that I would be motivated enough to make time to do self-study to take CLEP/DANTES exams was obviously a little too optimistic. A nice thought, but difficult to put into action. It takes time, energy, and more importantly, discipline: something I am sorely lacking these days.

I can blame work and all the stressful goodness that goes along with it, but that only goes so far. To be perfectly honest with myself, I must admit that I’m just too darned lazy to do certain things. Mind you, I’m not a lazy person by nature — but rather, I am selectively motivated.

Well, as a result of being determinedly unmotivated to take my CLEPs, I enrolled myself back in school to finish off the last of my required courses. Evidently, I’ve forgotten all about the pain and suffering that one often has to endure in school, when I could have easily avoided the classroom simply by hunkering down and taking those darned exams.

5 more classes. Electives and general education courses… You know, practical classes that teach you life application skills like “Underwater Basket Weaving.” Since I’m taking online courses, I suppose that one would be a little hard to imagine.

To be 15 credits away from my degree and never obtain it would be a sad, sad thing. I must remember that as I’m hitting my head against a wall because of uncooperative learning team members.

Back on track with the 15-year plan…