So, work is stressful. We’ll call it – I’m leaving, and so is another half of the 4-person team, so management is very on-edge.

Life is stressful, too, right now. We’ll call that one – we’re moving to Seattle (stressful enough thought for me) and I’m going first (another very stressful thought) and we have a million things to do that involve being ready for things like move surveys, market evaluations for pricing our house and getting it listed to sell, and getting the house ready to sell (which really isn’t a million things, but it’s awfully overwhelming).

What do I do when things get stressful? Two things – I don’t eat, for one, and I try to do active things that will let me vent out my stress, like ride my bike.

Last night, stuff happened at the tail end of the work day that REALLY had me spun up. I tried to calm down by filling my prescription for a night splint (for my foot – we’ll get there in a second), but I was still fairly wound up when I got home. I had a nice chat with my sister-in-law prior to seeing Rich, which also helped, but I still needed that physical activity outlet. So, I mowed the lawn.

We should know that’s never enough for me.

I pulled all sorts of grass from the flower bed. I was going to harvest raspberries, but they’re still FULL of yellow jackets that need to be smoked out. I might try to do that tonight. By the time I’d finished pulling grass out from the flower bed, I thought I just needed a short bike ride. Rich made me eat at least a granola bar BEFORE going on the short ride (I had not had dinner yet, just a granola bar on the way home from work – see reference above about not eating when stressed). So, I did, and I took the bike out. Rich had told me NOT to, but then said fine when I told him it would just be a short ride around the block.

The ride was only 29 minutes (checked the timer on my bike), and it was only about 5 miles. It was around the neighborhood – I went to see some of the nicer houses and counted up how many were for sale. There were 11 just all in one small area!! Some of those houses are ridiculously huge and gorgeous, and it surprised me to see so many for sale. Interestingly enough, there didn’t seem to be that many of the “normal” houses for sale in comparison (you know, the houses that most people would live in, not the 4000 sq ft, 5 car garage, adobe siding houses). Anyway, everything was going okay, it was just getting to be pretty dark as I sped my way home.

I got into the driveway to our house and was starting to dismount…I didn’t realize my left foot had clipped in, and…yup, I fell. This time, it was like it was slow motion! The neighbors were out, I was okay with my right foot on the ground, trying to get the left foot out when I wobbled once, wobbled a bit more twice, and then wobbled the third and final time before I just crashed to the ground. My foot must not have released from that stupid pedal until midway through the fall; had I been a guy, I might STILL be moaning on the driveway. The neighbors from across the street (who were hanging out with our next door neighbors) called out, “Are you okay?” I was feeling very VERY moronic, so I answered a bit gruffly, “Yes,” like saying, “Yes – this has happened before…I feel totally stupid, I’d really rather you didn’t notice me right now!” He started coming over to help and I made a point to get up so he’d see I could at least stand; I was grateful he was coming over to help, though. I hobbled into the garage, got the bike put away, and entered the house to declare I’d biffed it again. Rich’s reply was something along the lines of, “I’m sorry, but I did tell you NOT to go riding your bike.”

I was all wound up again after that. I was wound up in part because I can do very few things thanks to plantars fascitis on my left foot (strained tendon that makes things like running unpleasant) – and those things are bike and swim. And there is no pool at the gym I go to. I was wound up because I felt like my falling had more to do with me just not being able to get my dang foot out of the pedal than it getting dark and me having gone out for a short ride. I was wound up because I was seeing the ability to do ANYTHING exercise-related that would let me vent my stress slowly disappear. And I was wound up because we might have to clean our house sooner than expected due to state laws binding the moving company to getting a move survey done really super soon so that they can enter the information in with enough time to schedule the move per the laws they have to abide by. Hearing we might need to get the house at least presentable earlier than later got Rich wound up, so there I was, bruised, scraped, and wanting to go boxing or something to vent it all out again.

So, today’s goal – stressful though today might get, don’t hurt myself.