Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.

Yesterday was a fun day. The kid did get up and did go into school, but you know when you have that feeling. You just know that at some stage, the phone is going to ring, or you're going to get a txt from her. Sure enough, after lunch, a txt asking me to ring her. I rang her, she was hysterical. There was no talking to her, she had an incident in school and she wanted to go home. I unfortunately picked that exact moment to not handle things and said I would get Mammy2 to talk to her. I wasn't able for her, for whatever bizzare reason. I rang Mammy2 who thankfully took over. Within an hour, the kid had calmed down, wrote herself and note and was on the way home. Missing her actual Irish Oral. When Mammy2 told me about the irish exam, I got even more stressed. At this stage, I thought my head was about to explode. I was having chest pains, a really bad headache and was feeling nasuous. Pasture was beckoning, I considered writing my will. Then I rememebered I had nothing in the bank account. I decided not to leave the 20 odd euro to Mammy2, unless she got a cheap undertaker.

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur, I entertained notions of leaving work early, but I didn't think of a valid reason to give. "Sorry boss, I think I'm having a stress related attack of some kind," Sounds pathetic. I left work and took a slow stroll to my bus, enjoying the evening sunshine. There's a lot to be said for the countryside and music. Met with Mammy2 who managed to talk me through my panic. We got home to the kid with half her hair dyed. She's making an effort to get rid of the red hair dye and so its now half black and half red. I didn't dare ask. I got a bite to eat and went to bed. Bed at 8 of a sunny evening. What a wuss! Of course, the kid was in great form. Except she wanted me to make an appointment for the doctor and for the eye person to get her eyes tested. I waited to see if she had any more appointments up her sleeve but no. Thankfully. She went back to sleeping. That kid spends more time in bed then anywhere else. She's going to try and talk to the teacher today about her oral. I don't hold much home.

At 11 I awake to the sound of a bath being run. She has decided to run a bath for the mate K who's staying over. At 11. I didn't realise it was possible to make so much noise whilst running a bath. The rubber ducks must have put up a fight. I felt like the grumpy parent asking her to keep it down. In fairness she was laughing and joking as opposed to being upset. I asked her how the 'studying' was going. She has this thing of leaving books scattered around the place, to lull us into a false sense of security that she has been studying. Being on Bebo involves research into the social networking phenomenon obviously. As it turns out my original 6 weeks countdown is moot. She informed us yesterday she'll be finished in 4 weeks. They're letting then finish early to study. I responded
"Excellent stuff, so you'll have 2 weeks to focus on your work"

The patented teenager 'You must be joking look'

"I'll be working SOME of the time, but I'll need to take a break from the stress of it all" she says burrowing back into the bed for another hours sleep?What stress? I reckon the Leaving Cert will be the death of me but she'll be fine.