Catching up

The last couple of weeks have been difficult for me. Although I don't mention it very often, I'm a person that struggles occasionally with depression and anxiety. Last week was very stressful for me and resulted in several days where I felt so anxious that my skin was practically crawling. I hate that feeling of barely controlled anxiety; the pounding heart, the cold sweats, the tossing and turning in bed at night (I turn insomniac whenever I'm in one of my states). There's also been some depression, too, although I'm thankful I didn't even come close to feeling rock bottom as I have in the past. About three weeks ago I started taking my antidepressant medication again, and I imagine that my blood levels are readjusting to it again, hence the troubles I've had. And today I woke up feeling a little bit lighter. I think maybe everything is finally leveling back out.

As for the job I interviewed for last week, I didn't get it...but, one of my references (a teacher named Susan who's a personal friend of mine) called me on Friday to tell me that they had called her to ask about me. She gave me a wonderful recommendation, or, as she put it "I practically told them that you hung the moon and stars, all by yourself!" which was wonderfully nice of her. They told her that I was tied with one other candidate for the job, so apparently my lack of Excel skills wasn't that big of a deal after all. Yesterday they called to tell me that they had decided on the other candidate, but they wanted me to know that they were impressed with me and that it was a hard decision to make. I suppose I should have felt bad about it, but I didn't. Their little "test" had left a rather bad taste in my mouth and I had almost decided I didn't want the job anyway. I'll just continue to look for another opportunity.

As for today, I am off work. I'm off tomorrow, too, and tomorrow night I'm hosting the August book club meeting for the Welcoming Club. Since I don't have a lot of room at my house (the group is rather large) I'll be hosting at my friend Marian's house. After I finish doing some housework this morning I'll go shopping for the refreshments I'm making. This month we read The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende. It was pretty good. Certainly not the best thing I've ever read, by a long shot, but entertaining enough. I'll review it later this week on the blog. I really need to start writing book reviews again, it's been long while since I posted one here. It's not been for lack of reading, but rather, lack of time. Book review blog posts take much longer to write than the ordinary what-I've-been-up-to sort.

Speaking of time, I'm grateful I finally have some to sit here with a cup of coffee and catch up with all of you this morning! For over a week now I've barely been able to find a few extra minutes to read blogs, much less comment on them. I can't wait to see what everyone's been up to!