Floating to Rest

I did this to myself last year: Scheduled a Stanford trip right before our big fundraiser for SAFEHOME and Rose Brooks Center.  Last year, I spent 5 days in California and returned the day before the event.  This year, I spent 11 days in California and returned three days out.  Shew.

I had three days to get back in the groove with all my cases and do everything that remained to pull off the BEER, BBQ & WAFFLE BENEFIT.  Thanks to Jenna Munoz, Miranda Erichsen, and some kick-ass sponsors, it worked, and when all the pennies fall through the piggy bank slot, we’ll have about a thousand dollars more than last year to help two agencies who serve survivors of family violence in our community.  Double Shew!!!

Miranda and I stayed until midnight cleaning, and I finished the last of it today.  Now a pile of client work for Tuesday’s trial awaits me.  But my stomach rumbles and my head throbs.  Tense shoulders signal that I’m falling, and if I don’t get a nap soon, I might crash.  I’d rather let myself down gently.  Any work I do now will be second-shrift, so I’ll close up shop, pack up the files, and go meet Genevieve for coffee.  The work can be done from home, thanks to the convenience of modern technology.

Before I go, my eyes fall on a little pile of presents that came my way last night.  I touch the edge of the cheerful card; I run one finger along the spine of the John Steinbeck novel from Chuck Dixon, and the “Complaint-Free World” from my sister-leopard Cindy Cieplik.  They know me well.  Travels with Charley, indeed.  And cheerfulness, always my goal.

It’s the eighteenth day of the thirty-third month of My Year Without Complaining.  I’m floating through the quiet air of my empty office.  Soon I will rest.  Life continues.

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