I think Life got in the way of me enjoying how awesome this past week really should have been. In hindsight, it wasn’t bad, although every day did feel like a Thursday. And, for some reason I hyper-focused on small, irritating details. Like how I couldn’t find my glasses on Monday morning, and I couldn’t figure out if A. I just couldn’t see them because well…I wasn’t wearing my glasses, B. I put them in an unusual spot, or C. my cat was laying on them (on purpose [to spite me] I’m sure). The answer to this riddle was B; they were in the laundry basket??? And this was just how my week went.

The first time I ever tasted biscuits and gravy was at a Piggly Wiggly grocery store near Darien, Georgia (population: 1,700). I was about 13 years old, and I had been enjoying a family vacation with the company of my friend, Lauren. She was less than impressed by my family’s style of vacation; we dragged her through one historical-building-turned-museum after another and stuffed our faces with fudge. (What is it with tourist spots and fudge?) She just wanted to lay out by the warm, sandy water of the Gulf of Mexico that were used to, but all we had was a muddy stretch of the Atlantic. The next stop in our trip was St. Augustine, Florida (one of the coolest places I’ve ever visited), but we sought out breakfast before we hit the road.

I used to be a person who was opposed to taking time off. Part of me was afraid that management would think I was a slacker for taking a mental health day. Or breaks in general. I was the employee who would literally work 9 hours straight. No fifteen minute rests in the morning or afternoon. No lunch breaks. Part of me was afraid that I would waste paid time off on a vacation on the off-chance I might get really sick and need that PTO. Luckily, my employer provides flu shots free of charge each Autumn, and I always take advantage of the perk. I’ve had two blitzkrieg illnesses since I started working for my current employer, and when I say “blitzkrieg illnesses”, I mean I become violently ill for 24 hours, but I’m back to work the next day feeling better than ever (albeit a little hungrier than usual). But for the past two months, work has been dreadfully slow. And, while I find that I’m incredibly bored, I also find that I’m just feeling unmotivated and really worn out. So, I put in a time off request, and I don’t think I could have planned for a better weekend. Usually, my three-day weekends are a total waste. I usually lounge around in pajamas all day and play video games for more hours than I care to admit. But that was not this weekend. Maybe it was the weather that made me feel so motivated because goodness knows it was pretty much perfect. But, this was perhaps the most productive weekend ever, and somehow it feels…refreshing.

You may be wondering, how are Dangerous by Shannon Hale and these homemade granola bars related? Actually, now that I think of it, they’re not. But hear my delicious side of the story out!

This has been a troublesome week, if only because it had days of the week that ended in “Y”– one of them being a Thursday, which has been a notoriously unlucky day of the week for myself since high school. Usually, I am of the mindset that you make your own luck. But, after two months of unrequited sleep, three unfruitful collection calls, and accidentally punching over my mug of water, which ended up saturating bills that would eventually be sent over to the corporate CFO for approval, I become a victim of superstition. Also, in a fit of insecurity, the day ended in tears, so it became crucial that I take a step back and seek out the positive aspects of the week.