A Week From Hell & Stress Management

"One Helluva Week" does not even begin to describe the week I've had or is even remotely close to begin the emotional state to which it's conclusion has put me in! I'm not quite sure where to begin my tale of chaos, so I will start from the beginning with Monday.

It started out ok with my run of the mill 10 hour work day. Monday's are always crazy because of the needs of customers that has built up over the weekend to which they try and remedy by all calling at once so as a result it is not uncommon to hang up the phone after helping a customer to see that I have 5 - 8 messages on voice mail to retrieve and return. I repeat this process over and over all day until everyone has been helped. I was behind all day and have my son's school conference that night so I work through and without lunch so I can get out in time.

Needless to say I was so far behind all day that I ended up working late. Everyone at work knew I needed to get out on time but instead of staying an extra 20 minutes or so to help out, they all took off and left me to deal with my customers and theirs as well. So I call the ex to say I'm going to be late in picking up my son and simply asked if there was any way she could help. She in turn decides this is an opportunity to go off on me instead. After screaming and bitching for ten minutes or so she says she will call her boyfriend (who doesn't have a job) to see if he is available to help. She calls back in the same bitchy mood to say her boyfriend will pick up my son and that I will have to go to her place to pick him up because she is working late herself.

With that taken care of I can finally get to the pages of orders I need to process through the system so I can get them to the warehouse and get out of work. While I do this my warehouse manager keeps coming up to the office every 10 - 15 minutes to see "Are you done yet?". To which I tell him I've got a ton to do and that it would really help if he took the orders off the printer and bring them back to the warehouse with him so they can get a jump on things. He in turn replies: "do I look like your fucking bitch?" then slams the door and walks out?!? I blow it off because I have to get my work done so I can get my son. By this time I am filled with enough venom that the next person who chooses to be an asshole instead of help will receive a verbal enema so fierce that the result be equal to making them look as if they had just spent several nights in prison with some very large and lonely inmates.

I finally get everything done and down the warehouse and get my ass out of there. During the whole time while I'm busting my ass to get out of there my ex is leaving message after message on my cellphone. On my way home in the car I listen to them and it turns out to be her boyfriend wanting to know when I'm going to pick up my son because "He's got shit to do". So now I am really pissed. They guy left me eight messages!!! so I get there and he's sitting there in the driveway with his "boys" drinking beer. I get out the car say hello and ask where my son is to which he replies "Fuck if I know the little shit's around here somewhere". Suddenly a wave of the most intense anger I have felt in a long time rushes through me and I just start shaking in it's wake trying to hold it back. He and his boys see this and everyone of puts down their beer and takes a step or two back with a look of fright in their eyes. I got these slackers right where I want them - scarred as hell and willing to do just about whatever I want to get me to go away. I try to speak but instead I yell like a crazed barbarian "WHERES MY SON!!!" Everyone in a at least a ten block radius had to have heard me and they stop in their tracks with fear to see where and who was so enraged. The boy friend and his boys start running in every direction to find my son and everyone else around literally grabbed their children and ran panicked into their homes.

This whole time it turns out my son was simply inside watching cartoons. He comes out unaware to what happened (how he didn't hear was beyond me) and jumps into my arms and gives me a big hug and kiss. All the stress and anger just wash away. He tells me how much he loves me and that he missed me because I was late. I put him in the car and get ready to go then the ex's boyfriend comes up to the car and says he sorry, was just kidding and the whole no-hard-feelings thing. I tell my son I will be a minute and walk with the dickhead up the driveway and grab one of his full beer cans, mean while he just keeps rambling on. we get up to the garage, we step inside and I close the door behind us. I then place the beer on the floor and tell him to pick it up. The idiot does and as he bends over to pick it up I grab him by the back of his shirt and slam him against the back wall of the garage WWE wrestling style and then grab him by the front collar of his shirt and explain to him in the most calm and even tone I can muster that if he ever calls me without it being an emergency again, and if he ever speaks to me or about my son that way again that I will make sure to erase his existence from the face of the planet and that I had no issues with going to jail over it because three meals a day, no job and no ex to deal with would be a most welcome change. I look down to see the punk actually pissed his pants!!! He's shaking and speechless - I put the fear of God into that man like no one had before. I then opened the garage door and picked the beer off the floor, cracked it open and handed it to him and asked if we understood each other and all he could do was nod his head yes. I went back to the car and drove away.

I do my best not to let my anger get the better of me but I have to admit that it felt great to let it out for those couple of minutes. I made sure not to hurt him but just rough him up enough to convey I had enough of his bullshit and that while I am normally a controlled and well natured person that I am NOT to be fucked with.

So finally the night ends with us waiting 35 minutes for the conference with my son's teacher but everything goes great. His reading, writing and math has all improved and he is one the most liked students in her class.

Unfortunately it's only Monday and the rest of the week at work goes the same way as Monday did with an average of 12 - 15 hour days with the ex bitch'n at me every time she calls about everything and anything under the sun just because that seems to be her thing ever since we broke up. By Friday night after she had picked my son up, I am throughly mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. I spent the night in bliss full silence - no phones ringing, no one bitching - absolutely no sound at all and for the first time all week I was at last content and calm again.

Peace may be fleeting but damn is it worth it when you can find it. Can't wait for next week for the cycle to repeat itself again.