It takes very little to incapacitate me – about 3 minor inconveniences, sometimes 2. But I have my liquid calm, and it’s not alcohol and it’s not coffee:
If you see me holding a chai, you can bet I’m in a situation prone to panic attack. Crowds or stressful days or interacting with strangers. I call chai my liquid sanity. And of course there’s the occasional time I just have a chai tea latte because it’s a cup of dreamy sweet joy 🙂
So one day I was on my way to work and had an urge for chai. But I hadn’t expected a bad day; I’d be fine, skip the chai, and save money and health. Then I remembered the last time this happened:
The Last Time
I craved chai, but resisted the urge because there was no reason for it. I had a no-stress day ahead of me, likely. I’d save money and health. So I drove right past the Bux, got to work to find out I’d sent – the horror – an email to 60,000-ish people that said “Dear FirstNames”… Like it said “FirstNames” instead of “Joe and Sue” or “Dear Mikayla”. I WANTED MY CHAI!!!!! 🙁
Back to This Time
I remembered that instant and thought, “Maybe I’d be wise to have a chai, just in case.” But I reasoned, don’t be silly. This isn’t some magical potion that you have a deeper connection with that warns of doom to come. It’s just happenstance. So I resisted, again.
What was I thinking? Life was kicking my patootie.
A friend had given me a mug from Scotland that says “Scunnered” on it. It’s a Scottish word that means “seriously pit-oot, awfy fed up, and greatly unamused” all in one. I dropped it in the parking lot and it broke. And guess how I felt? Definitely scunnered.
I went home after work and thought “Ya know, I’d rather not have a panic attack soon. I should relax. I should take a bath with a nice bathbomb.” But ohhh no. I relaxed for about 5 minutes before my skin and my tub looked like it came from the Cat in the Hat book:
Actual image:
And it wouldn’t come off with just water, it took a lot of scrubbing and cleaner. I had to scrub my tub instead of relax! Can we all agree it’s one of the worst chores for even the best of days, and here I was doing it on a rough day.
And then, I was like “I’m gonna be healthy and eat those green beans I bought yesterday.” Because I’m trying to be healthy and not let life get me down just because of inconveniences. Sure, I wanted the junk food from this insanely unfortunate day (Yes, it counts as insanely unfortunate from 2 inconveniences, I know, first world problems….), but I’d resist the junk food and eat healthy! But noooo, the green beans were all brown and gross WHEN I HAD ONLY BOUGHT THEM YESTERDAY.
End of day: I threw a fit, ate french fries, and gave up on making the evening worth anything.
And I learned a lesson: maybe chai actually IS a magical potion that I have a deep connection with to know of doom to come, and MAYBE I just need to BUY THE CHAI. If I feel the urge, BUY THE CHAI. No dilly dally over money or health when SANITY is involved! Am I right? 🙂
Buy the Chai!
After sharing this tragic story with my coworker, she laughed, said it was hilarious, and then said I should post a blog about it to make the day worth it. So I hope you laugh enough to make up for my pain 🙂 please laugh!
I am the opposite. If I am drinking a chai tea latte. I am having a good day and can drink the thing I find the tastiest. If I’m drinking a double shot espresso, it means I’m having a bad day and am drinking extra caffeine as a psychological crutch dating to the days when I was unmedicated with ADHD and used caffeine to self-medicate. Chai tea is a treat on the good days 🙂
Interesting how we associate different drinks with different moods and temperaments and days haha 🙂
this would make a great tee shirt: “BUY THE CHAI!” I want 3 of them…..
Yesss!!!! I might need one for every day of the week 😀
Well done!
<3
Oh man, I could feel the cold flood of adrenaline and shame at the email situation! I remember spending hours carefully selecting certain people to receive a marketing email and then accidentally sending it to every single email address on our system.
Then I spent more hours recalling them all, before finding out all that does is send them a SECOND unwanted email saying “The sender IS A HUGE FUCK UP and wants this email back, would you be really nice and delete it?”
Oh, the shame.
I knowwww. After I made that mess-up, my coworker asked me “So what do we do about it now?” and it’s like “uhmm, not do it ever again…?” haha it’s not like I’m gonna send another mass email saying “Oops, we know who you are, we promise.”
Good to know about the “recall” option! I’ve not looked into that at all yet, but I will be wary of that in the future because if it’s a mess-up that needs follow-up, I’d probably just send my own email saying “Oops, my bad, but hey doesn’t this make my brand more personal and authentic?” 😉 haha, try and put some positive spin and laugh at it maybe? *sigh* try…
I just sent work an email saying I’d died and got a new job. It seemed the best solution.
Hahahaha awww. It happens. Sometimes ya gotta dig your heels in the ground and say “I’m staying, you can’t bring me down.” And sometimes ya gotta find a new place of safety to learn and grow and flop.
I love Chai Lattes too! They’re definitely my all time favourite drink. Though I don’t think avoiding them leads to such disastrous consequences! You must be cursed to enjoy a cup of chai…Which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t a bad curse to have. 😉
Is that a curse or a blessing? haha, “I’m sorry, but it’s been 24 hours since I’ve had a chai tea and I must drink another before a plague falls on us all!” 😀 hehehe. Chais are the best <3