straight out whining

Please be forewarned folks - I need a place to vent while things in the real world are nothing short of chaotic at the moment. In my house, when things get overwhelming, I make a whine list (I feel like that should be trademarked) and get it all off my chest and out of my head in one dramatic recitation.

It helps to state it out loud instead of swirling around in my head.

And so, should you want to share in my current craziness, stick around. If that doesn't sound appealing, this is when you should stop reading. But I'm thinking this will end on an upswing, so your call.

1. SNOT. I'm fighting a cold. I've been achy for a couple of days and woke up stuffy. While that's not really something major to whine about, I'm not sure how to blow my nose with a new piercing. I can't neti pot, which I usually do every day, and so my head feels extra clogged.

2. PTA. I'm in charge of communications to 1014 families, many of whom don't speak English and don't have computers. Pulling contact information together is nothing short of daunting and everyone's waiting for me to turn things around when I'm not sure I can.

3. FAMILY. 2 people in my family are not well right now. And I'm not talking minor stuff - I'm talking serious, life threatening stuff. At the moment both are in crisis and I can't do anything to help either one. It's heartbreaking and frustrating. For one, much of the responsibility for day to day dealing is falling to me and I don't know how to do this. I'm scared.

4. BODY. I'm not recovering anymore from my bike fall. My hand still hurts all the time. My knee is still swollen and bruised. And my shoulder, the one that hurt before is back is now aching more than ever. But, I haven't had time to go for an MRI or even call the doctor back about next steps.

5. YOGA/BIKING. I can't do either and my mind and body are protesting. I miss them so, both the physical challenge and the mental break.

6. HOME. We had to clean our stuff out of basement storage while they reorganize the space and there are now 4 bikes, plus trunks and endless bags of crap in my apartment that shouldn't be here. I feel like I'm navigating a junk yard every time I try to find something.

7. DESK. I'm inundated with paperwork I can't get to because I haven't had time or energy to focus on cleaning everything.

8. WRITING. When? How? I haven't had a moment to concentrate and all the ideas I've had are floating away from me, balloons getting ever smaller in the sky.

9. PIZZA. I LOVE pizza but god help me, I don't think I can stand eating it for yet another day.

10. WHINING. All my attention spent on the above has been really hard on my kids who don't completely understand and so they're fighting for my attention.

To counter the above:

1. This cold won't last forever and I LOVE my piercing.
2. I'm helping this fantastic NYC public school move to a new level.
3. I have faith they'll both be ok in the end.
4. I'll recover eventually.
5. Both will be waiting for me when I'm ready.
6. In a couple of weeks my living room will be sparse again.
7. It'll get done.
8. I'm writing now.
9. I can never not love pizza.
10. Whining is a part of life.

And now, I feel better. Off to get 2 kids off to school, walk the dog, the pharmacy, a class parent meeting, move the car, clean the apartment, battle excel and hundreds of emails and see what the day brings.