My Adult Version of Red Light, Green Light

Did you ever play the game "Red Light, Green Light" when you were little?  If you aren't familiar, it's a really simple game.  The way we played it was a group would line up as if about to run a race, and someone would stand at the finish line and when they said, "Green Light", everyone would take off running towards the finish.  When "Red Light" was yelled by the announcer, everyone had to freeze in their spot and wait for "Green Light" to be said again and so on until someone made it to the finish line. 

 

I feel like this is how I live my life...mainly due to my job.  I'm a CPA and do financial reporting for a company in downtown Houston.  I actually really like what I do, and to top it off, I work for a great company, have a wonderful boss and like the people I work with.  The only downside are the cycles of reporting as we get busy after every year-end and every quarter-end and tend to work long hours during these times.  This is when I feel like my life gets put on hold a bit.  So there are about five months out of the year that I'm in "Red Light" mode.  We don't make plans much on the weekends as I need to be in town and available to work if I need to.   I am usually at work late and eat dinner in the office, so when I get home, I get ready for bed and sleep, and then wake up to the daily grind the next day.  After quarter and year-end reports are filed, I feel like someone yells "Green Light," and I take off running trying to fit in everything that I've put on hold.  I try to see all the friends and family I can, meeting for dinners, happy hours and other social events, and also I try to catch up on housework and a mile long to-do list of errands that will have inevitably built up during my busy time at work.  I then seem to exhaust myself by doing all of these things, although the social parts are fun and I feel better when I've scratched all of the items off my list.  However, by the time I get caught up on life and start to relax again, it's time for our busy time at work again.....and so the cycle continues.

 

Why am I telling you all this?  I felt like my little blog here was a good place to sort of dump these feelings.  Like I said, I like my career of choice, but I seem to struggle at times with keeping it all together and maintaining a balance... but I know most everyone understands this as it applies to everyone in different ways.  I just sometimes wish for a more stable routine with regular hours on an on-going basis.  I sometimes am envious of friends that are able to have their evenings free and never have to consider whether it's a quarter-end or not. I feel like I'm always telling people I can't make it to some event or dinner because "we'll be in quarter at work" or "it's our busy time."  I'm sure my friends get tired of hearing that from me as well.  It's the nature of my job, and I must accept it.  I know that.  It's what I've chosen, and I'm happy with my choice.  Also, now you all will know that when I've seemed to have disappeared from writing my blog that I'm either in my "Red Light" mode and don't have time to blog as when I have any free time, I'm probably sleeping.  OR that I'm in my "Green Light" mode and running around as fast as I can so that I'm not taking the time to blog.  I'd like to try to start blogging on a regular basis and make it more of a priority.  I really do enjoy blogging, and it's actually a form of stress relief when I make the time for it.  It's a way to share and connect with people and in a way, for me, it's a bit of an escape...like I can go off to BlogLand for a bit and get out any thoughts or feelings I want or dream and look at pretty pictures, and then step back into my reality. 

 

Thanks for reading...if you still are.  I'm usually not so personal or this chatty on here, but I thought a change for once was okay.  Hope all of you lovelies are having a wonderful week. 

Let's end on a fun note.  Here are some (somewhat blurry) pictures from my phone of outfits I've been wearing to work this summer.

 

 

XO,

Tara