Time, Anxiety and Airports
/
Dear Reader,
How are you? I’ve been better, honestly. It’s been a particularly stressful week full of all sorts of stressors- work, home, pets, health...I’m tired. We’ve been super busy- lots of late nights coming home, and scrambling to take care of the basics. I’ve been trying to find time all week to write this post, and I’ve been utterly failing. I didn’t think this post was going to happen, but here I am prioritizing it for my Friday night!
Anxiety Relief
In addition to being really busy this week, my mind is being overtaken by an all-consuming worry. It’s a personal health issue and a potentially major concern, I’ll share more once I get a better idea of what is going on. I’ve been worried about it all week; however, I’ve been super busy and haven’t really had much time to acknowledge it.
Tonight is Friday, though, and I’m by myself while my husband is off working. Plenty of time to think...and worry...and obsessively worry. I’ve been combating my thoughts with a couple of things: planning my trip to Walt Disney World in January and listening to a playlist of my favorite Disney songs while doing my evening chores (and writing this post, right now it’s “Colors of the Wind” in case you were curious).
The Disney playlist serves two purposes. The upbeat songs lift my spirits and energizes me. I never think it is going to have much of an impact on my energy until I turn it on. The second purpose is that the emotional power ballads allowing me to feel my feelings. The emotions are bubbling on the surface, and when a sad song or an emotional power ballad comes on, the tears flow. Acknowledging feelings and feeling the feelings is actually a very important tool for getting rid of them and feeling better.
Planning the first day in Animal Kingdom!
Central Florida Trip Report (Part 2)
Day One
The evening before the morning of our trip, we discovered some skin lesions on Mama Meredith (one of our cats). We called the vet and arranged to drop her off on our way to the airport. My in-laws were babysitting the fur children, so they were going to pick up Meredith that evening after she was treated by the vet.
We left from the Charlottesville airport. Out of all the airports we visited on our journey there and back, Charlottesville was my favorite. It was my first time flying out of Charlottesville. I’ve done plenty of dropping off and picking up my husband there, but I hadn’t been inside myself. The airport is tiny, organized and super clean. It was so easy to navigate. There was a bit of a wait for the TSA line (less than 5 minutes) and my husband said that was the first line he’s ever encountered there.
Breakfast at the CVille airport.
We arrived with plenty of time, so once inside the terminal, we grabbed breakfast sandwiches at a cafe and sat down for a bit. We got some snacks at the little store and I refilled my water bottle at the “hydration station”. We also walked outside on balcony to view the air strip and our plane. It was an excellent start.
Looking at our plane.
CVille airstrip.
I was nervous, though, the last time I had been in the air I swore I’d never fly again. I had a really bad cold, and I couldn’t pop my ears. I was in so much pain the entire time. I don’t like flying anymore...not because of the height, or any kind of fear of dying in a plane crash. I don’t like flying because of how cramped everything is, how rushed everything is, how close you are to so many people, how people have to wait for you to sit down...it’s an anxiety nightmare for me.
This plane is too small.
Thanks to airplane logic, we had to head north to go south. Our layover was in the Philadelphia airport. I was excited that the layover was long enough for us to not feel rushed and to even stop for lunch. We walked a good distance to our connecting terminal and then found a table service restaurant called “Chickie & Pete’s”. It was not a good decision. The staff was disinterested in serving us, the service was super slow (like 25 minutes for a cheesesteak slow), the sandwiches came with no sides- not even a pickle, and there was no option to add chips or fries. They got my order wrong...well, half my order...I got two ½ a sandwich I ordered and ½ I didn’t. The food was expensive and not even remotely tasty. I would have been way more satisfied with my value if I had gone to the Popeye’s instead.
Out the window at our lunch table at the Philly airport.
Time Management
My struggle with time this week- and not having enough of it- has inspired me to more diligently pursue learning how to manage my time better. Last night, I watched some YouTube videos on the topic, and I’ve settled for trying a new round of “time blocking” this week. One thing that I came across during my research is that time blocking can be like a food diary. Food diaries prompt change because they force you to be mindful of what you are eating. Time blocking forces you to be mindful of your time. I’m opting to do the time blocking in my bullet journal since I’d like to see two timelines- my planned/expected day and my actual day. I feel like I may get some useful information from the comparison.
Today’s timeblocking attempt!
What is time blocking? It’s basically just making appointments for all the things you plan to do. You create a bar of all the blocks in a day (or use something like Google Calendar) and fill them in with your expected tasks. At first, it should be a bit challenging and overwhelming, but I think it is supposed to get easier as you get more practice.
Here are some of the videos I watched:
Also, this blog post: https://bulletjournal.com/blogs/bulletjournalist/daily-plan-bar on the Bullet Journal website.
