Coping Skills

I did a really stupid thing not long ago. As careful as I am with the meds of HeWho has no idea what he takes or why, I am not as careful with my own. I get interrupted a lot when I am doing this task. I try to do it early in the morning, but the phone will ring and I will have to abandon them to take a reservation or to listen to a recording trying to convince me to get help with my student loans or tell me I am a lucky winner of a dream vacation.

I count out loud while I am filling to help keep place, but that doesn't always work. While I was filling mine last time about 10 days ago, I got a call and was in a hurry to finish, as I was on the very last bottle of pills. I totally went temporarily stupid and just put one in each of the 14 slots. Supposed to take THREE. But my mind was on a problem in the park and my need to get someone to take care of it in a timely fashion.

About three days into the first week of those pills I noticed that I was becoming quite irritable and just felt crappy. Everybody will have an off day, so I just chalked it  up to that and figured the next day would be better. It wasn't. I even snapped at "my wife". HeWho is used to my moods and really doesn't take offense when I bite his head off. Sometimes I will apologize, but he just blows it off. This went on for 6 days before I figured out what the problem was. During that time I was struggling with insomnia and not getting any good sleep.

Day 6 of this adventure just happened to be a Friday. The busiest day of the week here. I got up and informed my sweet, easy going husband that I hated my life and everybody in it. Even the dogs! Every time I made a sudden movement of my head I could hear what sounded like a cookie sheet full of nuts and bolts being tilted from side to side. "There is something wrong with me," I told him. He was smart enough not to agree whole-heartedly with me and just suggested that I call the clinic and make an appointment.

As I sat there sipping my coffee and pondering life, I remember that I had had the symptoms before …….. when I ran out of those same pills and forgot to re-order them. I got up and checked my pill holder and sure enough, there was only one of those in each slot. He Who calls them my happy pills and he once said he did not care how expensive they were, that he would prostitute himself, if necessary, to pay for them. He really wants me on drugs!!

One of the side effects of stopping suddenly is suicidal thoughts. I can tell you that is not a problem with me. Homicidal thoughts did occur, though. I took two more pills immediately, but the effects do not hit right away. I am still having lots of insomnia, but I am a lot nicer to be around since I corrected my stupid mistake.

That Friday, however was not fun, not at all. My tolerance for stupidity has diminished with age and it would appear that I had no tolerance at all last week-end. Arguing with me was not recommended. Well, to be honest, it never is. I pretend to be happy and smile a lot when I am in a not so terrific mood, but I did not seem to be able to cope last Friday. 

The first man to feel the wrath of my tongue was the man who decided to argue with me about the site assignment. I did not build the park, the sites were here when we got here and I have no choice but to use what we have. Most of the existing sites are double sites, with the hook-ups on the same side. This means that, in order to be able to use both, the camper coming in first, can pull in to the back site, uh-hook their vehicle and the next camper will back-in to the front site.

I make a chart mid-week before the coming weekend. It is like a wedding seating chart. No matter how hard you try, somebody will be unhappy with my decisions. I have to know who is leaving first, so that I don't block them in. I never know who will arrive first, unless they are arriving a day early. So the chart is not written in stone, I am constantly rearranging it as the campers come in to accommodate the coming and goings.

So, when I told the man to park in site 8, leaving site 9 open for a back-in, I did so because he was not scheduled to leave until Monday, while most everyone else would be leaving on Sunday. His wife actually checked in and I told her that they would have a camper in front of them, but that I would make sure not to put anyone in who would be staying longer that they would. I went so far as to explain my reasoning to her.

Not 10 minutes later the phone rang. With a slight hint of hysteria (maybe she screwed up her pills, too?) she informs me that there are no hook ups on the site. Knowing full well that there are, I tell her that I will send someone to help them ……

I had this particular camper charted to go into a back-in initially and changed it when his wife told me he could not back up. Instead of waiting for the two minutes it took for HeWho never walks to drive to the site, they left and came to the office. The man is irate. He tells me that he would rather pull up to site 9. I carefully explained that this would render site 8 useless, unless a short motorhome pulled in behind him and since I have no idea what may come in off the road, I would possibly lose revenue. "Well, I don't care, I want 9."

It was like he flipped a switch on me. "Well, I DO care, since this is how I feed my family and pay my bills. I need to use all my resources." Telling him this I went on to assure him that I would be careful not to put a camper in front of him that would be staying longer than he would be staying. This man was not a good people reader at all. He kept telling me that I was not listening to him and we went about four rounds of explaining the ways of the world to him before I totally lost it.

He was trying to talk over me, so I went totally silent and when he finally shut up I said, "Let me put this in terms that even YOU might understand. It is my way or the highway. This means that you will park where I tell you to, or I will refund your money and you can hit the road."

He went meekly to his site and I texted HeWho shows people how to hook up to sewer and water. "You might want to head to site 8 and try to soothe this man I just emasculated with my words. I don't think I should be behind this desk today ……"

Come to find out, the whole problem with not being able to find any hook ups was because he tried to back in ……. You may recall that his wife said he could not back up.

Tomorrow is Friday again. I am booked solid. No wiggle room at all unless someone cancels. I am not really looking forward to it, although my coping skills are almost back to normal.