My horoscope for today says:

This is a wonderful day for negotiations, teaching, acting, promoting, selling, marketing or just chatting over coffee with a friend. You need to talk about your feelings. You want to share your thoughts and experiences with others. Fortunately, people are willing to listen.

I have more than my fair share of thoughts and experiences to share right now! *insert sarcastic laugh*

I think the only thing saving me from insanity right now is sleep, and I am not even getting enough of that. My body’s way of coping with stress used to be heartburn, but lately it’s been headaches and fatigue. And if I am lucky, I will even cry!!

Yesterday was another tough day. Getting a visa to go to mainland China was a bit of an ordeal. I didn’t know this but people usually line up at 7 in the morning at the embassy to get a number at 9 when the office opens. This was my experience:

9 am: Arrive at embassy to see people lined up down the stairs, out the back of the building, and down the street. Panic but stay in line anyway. Decide to see how fast the line goes before thinking of coming back tomorrow.  Line up moves quickly. Am mystified.

9:15: Get my number. Am told to come back in an hour. Decide to call my mom again and go to work. (My mom knows of services who help people get visas for a fee)

9:35: Arrive at office. Reply to emails.

9:50: Mom calls with agent on the line. They tell me to go meet the visa guy at the embassy by 10:30. The agent tells me to drive safely. I tell her I have no car. She suggests I take a cab. I call for a cab and quickly leave the office. (I didn’t like the idea of taking a cab because of the cost and that I had about 35 cents on me.)

10:10: In the cab. Realise I’ve left my bus pass at work and that I don’t even have enough bus fare to take the bus back to work. Will have to take extra time to find an ATM and make change. Am worried about being out of the office. Cry. Luckily, I see one before we stop. Cab driver scolds me for not telling him I was paying by credit card when I first got in the cab.

10:20: Call the visa guy. He’s 10 minutes away and tells me he didn’t need to be back until 10:45. Think maybe I can just go back into the lineup. Can’t my find the number I was given.

10:30 Meet up with the guy and realize that he was a few people behind me in the lineup this morning. We go into the waiting room. They are at #177. I was going to be #220. He looks over my form. Says there is information I must complete. Like heck I knew where I was going to stay or my dates. He gave me some information to use. Told me my passport just made the cutoff point (it expires in October this year).

11:00: Back in the office. Make long phone calls related to my dad’s business.

Everything would be so much easier for me right now if I didn’t have to put in a full work day and have to deal with my dad’s funeral preparations and all his paperwork.

My work has said it would support me in what I do, but I am not sure what that means. I haven’t been feeling the support at all.

They are counting every single day I am out of the office. I have been “working from home” a few times where I don’t actually do work.

My boss has reminded me about my number of vacation days. Does he realize that these are not days I’m choosing to take out of the office because I have fun things to do? If I wasn’t leaving this company, I’d totally have no time to de-stress after this ordeal. And things are just getting started. I have been prepared to take time off without pay, but my boss makes it sound like I won’t be allowed to take more time off if I use up all my vacation days.

What a joke.