the overachiever

"You never live up to your potential."
"You are capable of better than this."
"I don't understand why you don't apply yourself more."
"You'll never amount to anything if you continue on like this."

I got the message, mom. Now look what you've done to me. I've been called an over-achiever, but the real thing is, I am just trying to live up to my potential. Seriously. I am SuperGirl, remember?

We have decided to try a new tack on the road to figuring out "What Ails Kate?" I have to clear my schedule through the first of the year to determine if all my illnesses are due to stress. That's right! So many people say to me (and I hear it on a daily basis, mind you), "I don't know how you do it." Well, since I am still sick and have dropped almost 15 pounds this fall, I just might be doing it wrong.

I sat down and made a list of all the times I have taken sick in the past year and they all coincide with events like: the month I went camping every weekend, our vacation to Phoenix for Christmas, the day my parents actually, physically entered my home for the express purpose of eating a Thanksgiving meal for the first time ever, and election day. More recently, I get sick every time I have to be somewhere: a Halloween party, a girl scout meeting, or dinner with friends.

It takes a lot to rattle me, but maybe I reached that point sometime in the spring. I was scheduled for teeball, baseball, softball and girl scout meetings five days a week. And there were two events on two of those five days. I thought my schedule would be easier since we had no fall sports on our calendar, but maybe I just need to back off completely and chill for a while. I have handed over some girl scout duties, I have stopped studying Arabic, I have cancelled Thanksgiving preparation, and we are not going away for Christmas this year. Everything else should be cake. Right? So we'll cross our fingers and hope that I get better.

In the meantime, I'm looking for a new series of books to read, since I'm not allowed to volunteer for anything in my free afternoons. It actually sounds quite boring. I've been looking forward to these quiet afternoons for how long now???? Well, maybe I'll get all the laundry caught up or re-arrange the closets or paint the dining room - oh, wait, I'm not supposed to be doing that stuff, either. Damn. Somebody's gonna have to tie me down, you know that right? This is gonna be difficult....