I went to bed by three last night, so as to have eight hours’ sleep before the workshop today. It’s always best to be well rested when I walk into that humming beehive where I have to be alert and present for two hours to oversee the magic.
I was exhausted and ready for the sleep, but my eyes popped open at 5:46 and pretty much stayed that way. I’d have thought it would be easy to catch up on my sleep, since I was up early the day before, sucked down a coffee and dashed up to the Allen Pavilion to get a flu shot and have my high blood pressure checked. The last time I’d been there my blood pressure had been high (though my cholesterol was 160). The doctor’s face turned into a tarsier’s, his eyes like two saucers, as he read the monitor. He told me not to worry, his eyes still not back to their normal size, to take a couple of deep breaths, and my blood pressure remained very close to stroke range.
The Nurse Practitioner who gives the shots is a woman I don’t recall ever meeting. She’d been extremely snippy to me on the phone when I called with an increasingly uncomfortable pus filled thumbnail in August. In the old days I’d have been growling at her over what an asshole she’d been when I’d called with a medical emergency and she gave me attitude when I called back a third time in four hours of increasing discomfort. She’d lectured me, instead of apologizing for acting like a jerk, and not having the receptionist pass on the information she finally gave me about where to have it lanced.
At the time it really burned me up. But, nowadays, being fucking Ahimsa Man, I was mild and pleasant with her. Had a most pleasant chat, and I told her about the constant stress I am under trying to scale a great idea that works into a business that can sustain itself and the people who work for it. As she put the cuff on she said– “oh, off the record….” and told me about a group at Columbia Business School that offers free help to start-up businesses. My blood pressure? 108/70, twice.
No matter that the deadline for getting help from these MBA students turns out to have been 9/6. I’ll fill out the application for the highly competitive freebie, they review them on a rolling basis.
But now, if you will excuse me, I’m going to be late for the workshop– on 4 1/2 hours’ sleep.
gratuitousblahg 