Palace Fever

Today was not my favorite day.  I woke up this morning in what can only be described as a melancholy mood, likely prompted by a lack of continuous sleep, the imminent departure of the students, frustrations with a certain individual (She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named), and the fact that my left contact lens has turned against me and is now terrorizing my eye. My eye has been watering off-and-on all day, making it difficult to distinguish which tears are the result of eye irritation and which are tears of emotional irritation.

Like I said, today has not been my favorite day.

The highlight of my day today was the bowl of tomato soup and wheat roll I had for lunch. As much as I love soup and carbs, when you are living in Europe and you specify soup as the best part of your day, that’s a pretty crappy day.

I decided the solution to my morning grumpiness would be to get out of the palace for a few hours. I really need some new clothing (I know I say this often to justify shopping, but I really mean it now! I need some new white t-shirts after traveling to hot sweaty Spain, socks, and maybe a new work dress or two) and I planned to go to charity (thrift) shop row on Lothian Street in Edinburgh today, followed by a picnic on Calton Hill.

But that plan was nixxed pretty fast as the result of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s insensitivity. I’ve now been on duty for five out of the past six days (on Saturday I took a day trip to St. Andrews, which I am purposefully not discussing here because I don’t want to contaminate the memory of that perfect day with my crankiness!) and I have cabin fever. Or perhaps more accurately, palace fever.

I’m now making a mental list of things that can pull me out of this sinkhole of self-loathing, frustration and cantankery. A brief but needed conversation with Ma and Chris definitely helped. I think I may retreat to the music room and play the piano or guitar for awhile and/or take a bike ride around the Estate, which has never failed to help remind me I am a very privileged person just for breathing the air here.

Thanks for listening. Ta-ra.