In the spirit of being nice to myself, and because I'm one of these people that notices chipped toenail polish on others (and myself, of course) I went to my local nail salon today and plunked my feet into the hot water. This is all to reduce stress. Just so we're clear.
Here, I'd like to make a totally unrelated statement. Simply put, dogs should not be allowed in nail salons. Period. It's unsanitary. They're gross. No, I'm not a dog person. No, I don't think dogs are cute. But, aside from that, it irks me to no end when women show up with their little "partners" (I swear that's what they're called here), coo at them, oohing and aahing over every little yip they make. The ones that yip, the dogs Mariah Carey carries around with her in her purse--those are the worst. (I'm sure Mariah Carey is a nice person and all. It's her dogs I'm objecting to. Not her.) All salons should ban dogs. And, their owners, while they're at it. Just saying.
An hour later, I like my toes, and am headed back to my apartment. At one stop on my subway line, I glance down at my phone and see I have a message. I have just enough time to listen to it before I lose reception, and what I heard hit me hard.
"We're wondering if you're on your way to our 5pm meeting today." Noooooo! What 5pm meeting?! I frantically look through the e-mails that scheduled this meeting. Sure enough. April 10th, 5:00pm. My calendar shows the meeting at 5pm on Friday. Crap. Crap, crap, crap. I get off at the next station, run up flights of stairs, and completely winded, hail a cab. Now, in my defense, my subway line is the newest, which means it's furthest down into the ground, which means I have to run 40 meters up to get to ground level. I'm not winded because of my age, like some people might assume. In case you were wondering. Again, just saying.
I make it to the meeting, apologizing profusely, because tardiness in Japan is equivalent to BO in the States. It's simply unacceptable. You are never late. Here I am, half an hour late. I cringe. But, the meeting is wonderful. They're great people, and we promise to get together again on Friday.
The problem with today is not the dog in the nail salon. It's the fact this is the third time this month I've either double-booked, or simply missed a meeting. Am I really that stressed out? Is my calendar-system (in triplicate, mind you) really not working? What's going on?
This requires some serious self-reflection. I am not this sloppy. I am not this careless. If I'm so stressed I can't even keep my schedule straight, I'm a bit more concerned than I was when I woke up this morning. This kind of stress cannot be fixed by a new coat of polish on my toenails, or spending money to fix the bags under my eyes. Yet another task on my to-do list. This one won't get misplaced.
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