September 9, 2009
A Tiny Bit
Two hours of nap + nearly 6 hours of actual sleep, and I’m a little closer to human today.
I may have mentioned that last week was terrible, awful, no-good and very bad. It was all of those things, especially Friday between the hours of 9:45 and 5:15. Given my policy of not discussing what I normally do between those hours on days that are not Saturday or Sunday, we’re going to venture into Especially Apt Analogyland.
So, let’s say you’ve been playing softball with a group of people for… 5 years or so. You meet up regularly for games, make time for the occasional happy hour. People on your team rotate in and out, but there’s a few people who’ve remained constant. Including the team captain, who is also a league officer, and the team co-captain.
And say that a little while ago, your co-captain told you that your team captain (who you thought of as a friendly acquaintance, if not a close friend) was hell-bent on making sure you were never allowed to play shortstop, or bat fourth. That the co-captain didn’t understand this, as you’re a competent player, certainly in the top 20% of players on the team, someone with potential to do really well if given the chance. But nevertheless – the odds of you being allowed to excel are slim to none.
And you have no idea what you could have done in the past five years to incur such animosity, but you’re incredibly frustrated that it’s going to impinge on your opportunities to achieve – regardless of the arena. And it’s not a situation where you can simply ask the person. And so you hop on Amazon and order a copy of a Dale Carnegie book, and you lay in bed the night before your next game and you don’t sleep.
Seeking John Galt 
Beach Bum said,
September 9, 2009 at 9:28 am
*hugs*
vvk said,
September 9, 2009 at 9:39 am
*hugs* people and politics are strange…
restaurant refugee said,
September 9, 2009 at 10:52 am
I won’t pretend to offer advice but I have heard that champagne helps most situations.
Keeping a good thought for you.
Brian said,
September 9, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Maybe you could arrange to “accidentally” crack the team captain in the head with an aluminum bat.
Er, analogically speaking, of course.
Hugs and good thoughts. About aluminum bats.
A boy named BLVD said,
September 9, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Is this a matter of being in the spotlight? Otherwise I can’t fully realize the correlation between not being able to excel and not playing shortstop or batting 4th. Have you considered the merit of being an exemplar specimen regardless of position? So you can stage a softball coup or you can play it to the bone.
Dagny Taggart said,
September 9, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Beach Bum: Thanks. And congratulations, again! You = awesome. 😀
vvk: Frustratingly so. And, thanks.
restaurant refugee: A bit of France’s own Fizzy Lifting Drink might be just what the doctor ordered – at least for my mood, if not the situation.
Brian: I shall try counting aluminum bats, instead of sheep, should the problem persist. Note: counting jars of Nutella serves only to make one more hungry than sleepy.
BLVD: I cited those positions because they generally require a higher skill level than some of the others, and are frequently rewarded with greater compensation, and yes, recognition.
And of course, it never occurred to me to do my best regardless of the task at hand, because I am patently without anything even resembling a work ethic. [/sarcasm]
Brian said,
September 10, 2009 at 5:53 am
Noted, although if one were to eat enough Nutella to induce food-coma, then it could be considered win-win, no?
And also, props for awesome children’s literary references; I look forward to hearing how you used to be rich last Thursday…