Two Women

My Dear Princess and Dear Friends,

A day of two very different women. 

Shenée sneaked up to me on the train platform this morning. She grabbed my hand and laughed with delight at having surprised me. We had coffee together, and she talked to me about Richard Feynman, her new hero. She was in good spirits.

One meeting with our vendors later, and she was like a different person. Frustrated, angry, tearful and defeated. I offered her option after option to cheer her up, but nothing would do. 

Fortunately Jeff the American was there and he always seems to know what to do to cheer her up. Within an hour she felt better again, but I was concerned. This project - our vendors - seems to drain her completely. 

I do not tell her the impact this has on me. It is not so much the project. Like I could give an eff about our idiot vendors. But when I see my friend hurt and angry and I can't do anything to fix it, it leaves me stressed and headachey. 

Sure enough, around the same time Shenée was feeling better, I could feel that familiar lightning strike of a headache cutting right across my brow. 

And then we had round 2 with the vendors. The second meeting went a lot better, and this time Shenée came out feeling more positive. I was happy for her, but all the same I could sense the headache getting worse and I just wanted to get home and lie in the dark. Shenée noticed something was wrong and was very nice but I just had to go.

I had to do some shopping first though, and I trudged home with my two bags of shopping, still in the middle of the meetings in my head.

When I got home, I found Caro on the couch. She smiled at me. She had missed me and was waiting for me. It was that same wicked smile that brought us together and got us married in the first place. And even though my head was splitting and even though my mind was still halfway in the office, just being with her and near her raised my spirits and soothed my head. 

My evening ended up being lovely. Even though it mainly consisted of the two of us napping together on the couch, the key word here was "together". 

Work stresses are so much more bearable knowing that Caro is at the end of every working day.

S.