Though technically it won’t be Friday by the time I’m done writing this post, I think it’s still Friday until I go to bed and wake up, because after that point, it will be Saturday. What a sentence.
I had an experience today at work with with someone who was so angry and mean that after she left I had to shut myself in the bathroom for a couple of minutes and cry, because WOW. I’m not really much of a cryer, unless, say, I’m reading a story about someone rescuing puppies or something, because it’s not like I’m made of stone. And I get that sometimes things are upsetting and/or frustrating. I do. It’s not like I’ve never been upset and/or frustrated in dealing with other people, and I’m sure I’ll be that way again at some point. It’s an occasional side-effect of interacting with others. But the experience reminded me of one of my favorite quotations, which I actually have hanging up on a little bulletin board next to my desk here at home. It’s from Kurt Vonnegut, and everybody needs some Kurt Vonnegut hanging up by their desks, I think. It goes like this:
“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”
Smart guy, that Kurt Vonnegut. If I ever have babies, that’s a lesson I will teach them.
Anyway, tonight after work I had a margarita and then I went to see the new James Bond movie and I’m right as rain now. (I suppose if I ever have babies, they will also learn from me that James Bond is good for fixing a bad day. Life is all in the details, after all.)
jamelah.net 
Take 007’s logic & apply it to your experience at work: it’s best to be “shaken, not stirred.”
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By and large I think “You’ve got to be kind” is much better advice than “I won’t consider myself to be in trouble until I start weeping blood.”
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