The high of my week was learning about my benefits for 2022! Working for a large, global company has some advantages, like the fact that we have a big human resources team that is devoted to finding ways to make their employees happy. Two of the benefits I’m most excited about are student loan assistance ($100 per month, straight to my loans!) and getting 36 FREE therapy sessions using a specific app. FREE THERAPY. OMG. I’ve been wanting to go back to therapy for a long time now, but since I’m on a high-deductible health insurance plan, each visit was going to be a pretty hefty expense. And now I can go weekly for, like, 9 months for FREE. Whaaaat.
The low of my week was making a mistake at work. I was working on a project (a redesign of a client’s website) and we were ready to send the new website to the client for their review and realized pages were missing—pages I was supposed to have written. It just completely fell off my radar to do that so I had to furiously write five website pages this week and add them to the site. Ugh. I hate making mistakes! I spent a good, long time beating myself up about it but my boss reminded me that I’m human and have a lot on my plate. And really, I didn’t set the project back at all and was able to get everything done in record time. But it still put me in a funk for a little bit!
A blog post I loved was The Last Time… by Runners Fly. She wrote a thoughtful post about how everything we do, we will someday do for the last time. But we never think about that and, as such, we can get caught up in the annoyances and get distracted by other things going on in our lives. But what if we took a moment to think about doing something for the last time? How more appreciative we may become! I really loved this post because, for me, I do think about doing things for the last time; it’s an anxiety trigger for me. There are times when I end a phone call with my mom and I go into a panic that that was the last time I will ever speak to her. (I end every call with “I love you” because I always want those words to be the last ones she hears from me.) It’s hard for me to appreciate these little moments I get with my mom because I’m just thinking about how scary this world will become when she’s no longer in it. (I may have dependency issues when it comes to my mom. Maaaaaaybe.) Anyway, I really want to get to a place where I can think of things I’m doing for the last time with fondness and not anxiety, but it’s a work in progress. This is probably a good exercise for me to start doing so I can train my brain to think more positively about stuff like this.
David suggests taking simple, mundane moments and behaving as if you’re doing them for the last time. Not in a depressing way, as in “If I get in a terrible car accident I’ll never be able to mow the lawn again!” but more of an exercise to become aware of how precious these activities really are. I did it the other day when I drove my daughter home from school.
A podcast episode I enjoyed was The Great Helga Hype on Decoder Ring. Such a fascinating episode about art and relationships and mystery. It’s all about an artist named Andrew Wyeth and this series of paintings he did about a woman named Helga. But who is Helga? What is her relationship to Andrew? What does Andrew’s wife think about this? FASCINATING.
I’m currently reading a lot of books, like always. I am still working through Jesus and John Wayne, but I think I should finish it up this weekend. I’m also halfway through Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall on audio. It’s so good. Yesterday, I started two new books: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson and The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite (a queer romance).
The best money I spent was $9 on an incline scratching pad for the girls. I’ve only seen Ellie using it so far, but she’s usually my early adopter. I think the incline helps her get a really good scratch because she uses it ferociously. It probably feels really good!
My plans this weekend include hanging out at home tonight (maybe I’ll set up my Christmas tree?!). Tomorrow, I have a writing date with Mikaela in the morning and then a day date with my mom in the afternoon. We’re going to test drive a Kia Soul and then go to our local Christmas shop to look at their decorations. (I’ve always wanted a big, beautiful wreath for my front door and I think this year is the year I finally make that happen). And Sunday is football with the fam, of course!
What was the highlight of your week?
Your benefits plan sounds AWESOME! $100 per month for your loans is amazing and so is FREE THERAPY! Woot!
Sorry to hear about the mistake at work — even though it worked out okay, of course it feels crummy. Being human is tough.
You have to forgive yourself for a mistake a work – I make like a million every day and they keep paying me! You’re doing a great job – remember that being kind to yourself is the most important thing you can do.
I always read blogs in the morning and you always ask on Fridays what the highlights of our weeks are and then I just postpone and postpone on commenting because it’s SO HARD to come up with anything because every day is the same. *sigh* I guess the highlight is that I wasn’t feeling well, but my COVID test came back negative, so it’s just a cold or allergies? That doesn’t seem uplifting enough. Hm. I’ll keep thinking on this.
Well, a highlight of my week was seeing my blog post mentioned here. i’m so touched that you liked it! Thank you for the shout out. Btw I think your relationship with your mom is beautiful. We should always end every conversation with our loved ones with “I love you!” Of course you fear losing her- that just shows how special she is to you.
Your weekend sounds really fun. I’m looking forward to the Christmas decoration update!
I liked that post about “the last time” as well! Such a great reminder to live in the moment and be present.
Your benefits sound great and don’t beat yourself up too much – we all make mistakes! And you fixed it so that’s the main thing!
I do the exact same thing with my mom. When I was in 10th grade, my English teacher told us about one of his students who got in a fight with his father, who then immediately died in a car accident. The last words the student said to his father were “I hate you.” Apparently (and unsurprisingly) this messed up the student for life.
In retrospect, I have no idea *why* my English teacher decided to share this story, but it horrified me so much that I always make sure that my last words to my mom are “I love you.” Just in case.
That’s fantastic about your work benefits! Yay for free therapy! That’s amazing . It’s information that we have to seek out because sometimes it’s not really communicated all that much… my work covered half of my gym membership and I hope they’ll continue to cover half of my Peloton membership going forward!
I am sorry about the mistake at work, but I love that your boss was so understanding about it and that you were able to catch up and deliver in time for delivering to your client! That’s a good work ethic right there.
I hope you had a lovely weekend, friend. Sounds like you had some good plans!
OMG yay for those awesome benefits! Congrats!
Ugh, I hate when I make a mistake. I am so glad your boss was cool but I would be feeling the same way!
Please couple “the last time” with excitement over all the new things you are going to experience (including with your mom) that you don’t even know about now! I love to think about that. Like, I started painting rocks just under a year ago now. I never thought I would be part of an artist community, and I love it.
Hmm, highlight of the week. Hmm. Hmm. Honestly last week was really hard with work BUT… um, we got El Famous one day! And that was awesome!!!!
It’s hard to be kind to yourself but so important. I am glad your boss was understanding and gave you perspective on it. We are all human! But in the moment, it feels so awful to make a mistake, especially for people like us who struggle with anxiety and are naturally hard on ourselves (which goes hand in hand with anxiety!).
That is awesome that your company is putting money towards your student loans! What an awesome benefit. We just did benefits last month at my company. But it is not my favorite time of year as it’s more complicated once you have kids! But I am lucky to have a pretty affordable insurance plan. I know that is not the case for everyone so I do not take it for granted.
Let’s see, high of last week was probably book club? We had a great zoom meeting. We talked about a collection of essays about race in Minnesota. Sometimes we don’t discuss the book in a lot of depth but that night we did and have some great discussions. Our next book is Caste, which I just finished last night. It took me probably 2 weeks to get through it since I had to read it so slowly. Now I”m reading “Under the Whispering Door” which I’m really enjoying! I have been feeling like I’m kind of in a reading slump but this book is holding my attention well so hopefully I’ll feel more drawn to read it.
Oh, I hear you on the work mistake. I beat myself up about those, too. I had a recent issue where I completely forgot to update someone who thought she needed to attend (and present at) a meeting the next day… that was canceled. I am convinced – still – that she hates me. But your boss sounds awesome, and hopefully you did remember that you’re human. LOL
Also? YAY for the benefits – that is fantastic!
I need to thank you and Elisabeth (http://elisabeth-frost.com/) for helping me find Jenny’s blog! I swear I am the only person on earth who didn’t know about it. I totally hear you on the “last time” thing, too, and for me it’s also my parents. Because I don’t see them regularly, I worry that I will get *a call* that tells me something awful has happened. This has led to me answering phone calls from them and my brother with, “Hi, is everything okay? Are you okay?” I am sure this drives them bonkers. 😐