Kick it down a notch

I'm really tired this morning. Overtired. I keep staying up late, and I need to get up early in order to get to work on time. It's now Friday, and I'm feelin' a little too close to the surface as a result of having lost so much sleep.

I just had a customer scream at me for a good minute, basically calling me a moron, claiming that he'd left messages and has not received a call back on his software orders for six months.

He was truly losing it, and what was unfortunate was that he wasn't willing to let me help him until he had vented, and so in my very very tired state I absorbed a lot of the impact directly, and now I feel shaky and sad. It's passing, even just five minutes after the fact, but boy howdy, he sure wanted to be mean to me, and he was ready to keep going until I felt good and whipped.

I said all the right things, and I acknowledged his anger and frustration (several times), and I got him someone right away. I do my job well.

But dude, I feel jittery now, and a tiny bit emotional.

Today's not the day to be generous with my emotions, I think. I've already had one friend blow me off, and while I am not trying to take it personally, my Id won't let it slide.

Nasty little Id.

Red envelope, rainy grey day

I really miss Ted, man.

He and his wife Rose sent me a belated birthday card, and I grabbed it out of my mailbox this morning. It's the Teletubbies, wishing me a happy birthday. His tidy, beautiful handwriting on the inside. My birthday's about a month past, but he never really does forget.

Yeah, I miss him.