Does the homeless lady have less stress?
09/25/2007
I was wondering at lunch if the homeless lady that lives along the riverbank has less stress then I do.
Her home is along a creek bed that runs beside the police department. I see here almost everyday as I walk into work, during lunch break or if I have a break during the day. I guess she is “chemically challenged” because some days she is more lucid than others. Some days she is dancing around wildly in her drug induced state. Other days she is sound asleep along the river bank when I am at work. I don’t know where she gets her money for food and drugs. I assume some of her support comes from the local shelter just a block away, the other ways I don’t want to think about. As I was watching her yesterday, she was singing out loud, dancing along the rivers edge and I was thinking she didn’t have a care in the world at that moment.
I was having a difficult day at the office. It was Monday, there was a lot of activity over the weekend and tempers were very short. The unit is having a difficult time and the old saying "it flows down hill" applied. I have been snapped at, dismissed, ignored and generally haven’t liked my job the last couple of weeks. I am seriously wondering if it is time to make a change. The bad days seem to be out numbering the good ones recently. I am getting tired of the stress. I keep thinking it will blow over, but it hasn’t.
As I was walking back into the office from lunch the supervisor stopped me. Apparently she received a call about the pants I was wearing. I guess I have run into an issue with the fashion police. I thought I looked fine, conservative dress, tan cotton pants, a burgundy top, matching belt and shoes. I said to her this was just what I needed, additional stress on top of an already stressful day. I offered to go home and get changed since apparently I was “close to” or “over the line” with my tan pants. She was going to check the dress code of the General Orders and with a memos that had been put out regarding changes to the code. Someone had construed my pants as part of the “any other color of denim” portion of the dress code. It took two hallway meetings, two hours and an email to deal with my new issue. She told me now she will have to “monitor my attire more closely”. I just wish this had come up on Friday or sooner. I explained to her that I had just purchased a couple of pairs that were very similar over the weekend. I told her I wished that people had other things to worry about, I barley had time to go to the bathroom let alone worry about what other people were wearing.
I guess this will now go into my personnel file, into the notes for those nasty reviews twice a year. I read over the General Orders, the dress code memo and thought to myself: I could wear cropped pants with sling back sandals and from fitting tops. I could come up with all sorts of combinations that would be on the line and not over it. I just don’t want to go there. I came home, walked into my closet and rearranged my dresses and slacks. I now have 4 pairs of “questionable” pants moved to the other side of the closet. I guess it will be dresses and skirts from now on. Forget wearing a pair of comfortable pants, I am being “monitored” for appropriate attire.
The stress, it is starting to get to me. Dancing on the riverbank in a drug induced stupor sounds really attractive to me about now.
