Catching Idle Butterflies

Body Talk

Too much stress can make the human body do strange things. Or to look at it in a different way, I think our body has a way of letting us know when our stress levels have reached near critical mass.

For me, it's Eczema. Most of the time I deal with only a little patch just above my left ankle. But when I get stressed, it flares up and spreads up my calf, itching enough to drive me mad. It then spreads to my other calf, my elbows, my back, and my hands. My allergists have all told me flare ups can be the result of stress. Ya think? Yep, I had that already figured out, but thanks anyway.

It started to flare up again during the conference, so I chalked it up to being anxious about that. But it has yet to flare down, and something new appeared just yesterday.

I'll also get hives once in a while, but usually only a little bump on my arm, and then it's gone within the hour. Starting yesterday, however, I've been getting hives on my legs, and even the palms of my hands.

Something is definitely amiss here.

So I took an accounting of what might be bothering me, and I realized without too much thought what my problem is. I simply have too much on my plate this month.

I'm a Registered Land Surveyor, but I also get to design water and sewer systems and street design. I love the work, it's challenging and every day is different. Summertime, however gets beyond hectic. Well, March usually begins our busy season, but this year it started early back in mid-February. I've been working over 45 hours a week since then, with no break in sight.

To top that off, I decided to participate in March's NaNo, I have at least two more church monologues to complete in two weeks, I won't bore you with the entire list.

So last night I decided something has to go. I chose NaNo to start. It wasn't a hard decision, because that's the one thing I'm doing for myself and my own sense of accomplishment. I'm not saying I'm giving up entirely. The month is still early. But making the 50k just doesn't seem feasible. Nor is it a lost cause. I have two complete chapters of a book with a desire to continue. Just not now.

So I doubt if I'll be adding that number on the top of each entry as it will not change for the forseeable future.

I also considered taking a break from my blog, but that's important enough to me trying to stay away from it would stress me more than at least popping in and saying hi when nothing of more import comes to mind.

Hopefully now I'll stop itching!