Life is Returning

I slowly feel the life coming back to me. I had a doctor's appointment at 1pm today, and I had to fast for 12 hours before. I was so hungry! And I had not a drop of coffee. I was worried it might affect my blood pressure, as it has been really high for me the past two times they've taken it there. It's usually around 100/60 and this time is was 102 over something, and the past few times it's been 125 and 130 over something (I never remember the second number!).

But anyway. I am sipping iced coffee, eating some food, and feeling much more alive. My headache is even going away. I have definitely developed a coffee habit. I started drinking three cups a morning last semester, because that's how much fits in my mug. It is a ritual that I would have such a hard time giving up. I do feel a lot more calm, however, and it's obvious that it affects my blood pressure.  These days that I'm at home all morning, I usually make 4 cups and drink the whole thing. When Porter is home with me, we usually make 6 cups and he sips on his one cup and I drink the rest!!! Definitely way too much. To help myself, I mixed the beans in our grinder in about a 1/3 regular to 2/3 decaf ratio.

Ah, how to stay calm. One way is to just do things. When I get lost in tasks, I feel a lot less stressed. When I use the pomodoro timer,  I'm not allowed to worry about anything but the immediate task at hand until I stop the cycles to take a major break! At the resting time I walk around and try to think about something totally unrelated. I have another stats exam this week and I have my homework that's due. Those are two very important and related tasks. However, I have done some prioritizing and I need to get prepared for the exam before doing this week's homework (this week is not covered). So I am going to work on prepping for the exam and not worry one whit over the homework. Once I'm done with the exam, I will start working on the homework.

If you think about it, why do anything stressed? You can only do what you can do, and you can't do what you can't do. So figure out how to do what you need to do, what you can change, how to do it, and then do it and don't worry.

One other bit of news on the stats front is that a classmate loaned me a TI83 calculator. I figured that a TI85 should do everything the TI83 does (and it does, I'm sure) but I was ready to tear my hair out trying to figure out some of the functions that the TI83 does at the touch of a button. All of the instructor notes are regarding this calculator and it is SUCH a relief to be able to follow the instructions given for our calculations. That is a big stress off of me.