Sometimes You Eat the Bear, and Sometimes the Bear Eats You

I like to think that I can keep a pretty positive attitude and not get caught up in unfortunate circumstances. Often I'm able to channel stress into action and end up feeling pretty good about it. This week, however, was a real humdinger. I mean, nothing serious or traumatic occurred (these are privileged-people problems), but it was just one thing after another until I felt knocked down.

In the last six days...

• I had three fillings replaced in one afternoon. It is surreal how like a horror movie it is to have people drilling and spraying water in your mouth, and yet it is so commonplace. And half-way through the dentist decided that the suction tube wasn't sufficiently working and I had to move to another room. Awful.   
• A few hours later, I got pulled over because my tabs were expired. I'm not sure if it was because we moved or because I renewed my tabs online last year, but I never got a reminder in the mail. Don't get me wrong, this was definitely on me, but the timing was brutal; the novocain was still in effect when I was talking to the cop. Also, when $120 goes down the drain I can't help but think of all of the ways it could have been better spent. 
• Because I have the ambition to prove my worth daily at work, I spent my MLK holiday working on a project that I lead in preparation for a meeting the next day. Then, in said meeting, I was told that the project will be put on hold for 6 months and the focus on my position will turn to grant writing in the meantime. It was disappointing to feel like the rug was pulled out from under me. I hate when decisions are made without those who are impacted.
• I received my first grant writing assignment three days before it was due. I worked more than 24 hours in two days to allow time for two supervisors to review it. One chose not review it and the other obviously spent about 15 minutes with it (it is 9 full pages of text). While I love to write, high-stakes writing keeps me up at night, and the lack of someone saying "this looks good" or "just focus on this piece" really impacted my comfort level with the whole thing. 

End of rant. Now that I write it all out it seems less miserable in retrospect than it felt at the time. I am just recovering from sleep deprivation. The good news is that today is a new day, a FRIDAY no less, and hopefully the weekend will provide the respite I need. To go out on a positive note, here is a sweet tune (sorry - the video isn't of the highest quality).

PS. This post title also reminds me of The Revenant, which we saw last week. I will share my thoughts about it on the blog soon.