Ups, Downs, Old Things, New Things

I don’t talk about it much, but I work for a major life insurance company.  I’ve been in the insurance industry since was 20 years old (well, minus a horrible 8-year stint in the auto industry), and I’m very passionate about life insurance.  I’ve been having some struggles at work lately, but on Wednesday, I got some horrible, horrible news.   I posted this on Facebook, and it sums it up perfectly.

I had a very “mortal “day today. Many of you probably know that I work for a large, well-known life insurance company. I develop all the training for the agents that sell our products. What I do is a lot like selling life insurance, only my job is to “sell” it to the people who are going to sell it to the end consumers. For the last two years, I have worked with a man who was absolutely passionate about life insurance, and he did his best to instill that passion in whomever he could, including me. He knew everything there is to know about life insurance, and he was always my expert whenever I had a question. The life insurance industry gets a lot of negative publicity, and a lot of people think that it’s a “sham,” but this coworker always made sure to remind me that what we do is important, and he stressed that my training should always reflect that. Four months ago, he was diagnosed with cancer and last night, very unexpectedly, he passed away. After the meeting in which his passing was announced, I went back to my desk, and I was overwhelmed by what a new perspective I had of my day-to-day tasks. I am saddened beyond measure for his family, who I know is reeling from the shock, but one thing I am confident of is that they are taken care of financially, at least, because of his passion for life insurance. Today I came to know first hand that what I do really DOES make a difference. Rest in peace, Bob, knowing that yours was a job well done.

Please say a prayer for Bob’s family.  He was truly was truly a wonderful man and will be missed. 🙁

In the meantime, my poor mother-in-law.  She was trying to free her cat from a tight spot on Saturday, and the cat bit her.  He’s normally so docile, and he was just panicked, as probably any of us would be.  Well, as I’ve now learned, cat bites are no laughing matter!  Because of the bacteria they have naturally in their mouths, I guess there’s a 90-95% that a cat bite will get infected, and my poor mother-in-law is in now the hospital after having surgery on her hand!  They had to open it up and drain it, I guess, or something, and she’ll be there anywhere from 2-8 days more!   Prayers for her are also appreciated.

In light of all that, my weekend, which had originally seemed so awful, really wasn’t that bad.  I’ve talked a lot about stress at work, and it all came to a head this past weekend.    I don’t want to go into it all, but suffice it to say I am doing two people’s jobs right now, and it’s pretty stressful. So stressful, in fact, that my husband and I actually discussed the fact that my weight gain might actually be caused by the immense amount of stress I’ve been under.  Like, every day I come home and rant and rave about my job.  And normally, I love my  job!

I had a training course due that had to be finished today to send out for review.  The majority of development ended up falling on my shoulders, and I spent about 34 hours between late Saturday afternoon and 6pm tonight (Monday) doing it.  I was holed up in the back room with two monitors, two keyboards and two mice, along with a full-on audio hook-up, including a microphone to record 2 hours worth of narration.  Seriously.  That was not how my weekend was supposed to go. :/  My poor kids were practically walking on eggshells around me (6 hours of sleep Saturday night and 3 hours last night do not make for a pleasant mom).

Oh, and by the way, on top of all this…I ran ten miles on Saturday!

After last Saturday’s horribly hot run, I got up at 6am to get my run in this past Saturday.  I decided I would try to conquer the same route (with an extra mile added in to keep up with my training) that I did last week.  It was cooler but still humid, and misting slightly.  (For those who don’t know, I’m a priss who hates being wet.)  Normally, I start out too fast and regret it later.  In fact, last week was so bad, I stopped 4 times, and I even stopped and sat on a bench with only one mile to go!  But this time, I forced myself to go slow–like, more than 11 minutes per mile slow.  It turned out to be the best thing, because although I had some really slow miles (I think the Garmin was messed up by the trees), I ran the whole thing and didn’t have to stop this time. Yay, me!  I even got a quick, blurry picture of the bench where I stopped last week.

Later, I took Jamie to the running store to get new shoes.  I spent over $100 on his “sale” shoes!  Dude!  But he was excited and thanked me profusely, so it was worth it.  🙂  Our local running store is in the same strip mall as one of those “cookie bouquet” places, and lo and behold–they were open.  So…

I love me some fancy cookies. 😉  As does Jamie. Jamie got a decorated one, and I got a “millionaire” cookie. They were very good (we split them), and they were definitely a great reward for running ten miles before a weekend of stressful work. 😛

I’m exhausted now, since I still haven’t slept, but at least I got my course out tonight as scheduled.  However, I skipped my run this morning, and that bums me out. 🙁  I briefly stepped on the scale today, but I wasn’t happy with the results, which I know are partly a product of lack of sleep and exercise, so I’m going to put off my weigh-in until next week.  I can’t remember the last time I skipped a run or a weigh-in, but I’m trying to be forgiving with myself.  I just read a big Runner’s World article on how important sleep is, and that’s making me rethink things.

Speaking of which…it’s time for me to get to bed!  I’ll leave you with this lovely shot of the straw bales I saw last week on the way to work.  And, really…who doesn’t love straw bales? 😉

Oh, one last note: after lamenting about missing out on the winery run part of the the Thirsty Three last week, I’m happy to report that I found a replacement:  13.Wine in southwest Michigan!  It has a shirt, a wine glass, and although the medal isn’t a wine stopper, it does have a medal, and that’s enough for me. 🙂 It’s one weekend later than the race I was originally shooting for, but since I just skipped a training run this morning, that’s probably a good thing. 😉

Thanks for reading!