Day 41: Entertaining

I spent the better part of the morning in a foul mood. It dragged into lunch and I found myself sitting at a cafe, eating my vegetarian plate-of-the-day and feeling sorry for myself. My shoulder still hurt. A LOT. After going to physical therapy for three weeks, it seemed to be worse now than when I started. I was not feeling my best physically, which always seems to affect me emotionally as well. I didn't want to go back to work and I fantasized about just leaving the cafe and going home, calling my boss to say that I had fallen ill and wouldn't be coming back to the office today. Sounded like a good plan.

Instead I picked myself up by the bootstraps and dragged myself back to the office. I took a different route thinking it might change my mood to see different scenery. I was really trying to find the happy in today. I got to the bottom of the hill and a little, old man passed in front of me. He was wobbly but here he was out taking a walk in the -10 C cold (16 F). I wondered where he was off to and I secretly admired him as I trudged up the hill to my office. One of my colleagues came back from lunch while I was still getting out of my coat and winter gear and he had a client with him. I was not in the mood to make small talk so I introduced myself quickly, shook hands and disappeared upstairs to the safety of my desk.

Turns out the client was actually one of our Germany colleagues. He was here in Stockholm for the weekend to visit some friends and came by our office to see our showroom and give us some pointers with our light calculation software that we’ve had some issues with recently. Then it struck me. I suddenly felt the desire to hostess and I offered to run down to the local bakery to pick up some pastries so we could have “fika” with our guest. Everyone liked the idea and so off I went, back down the hill to pick up some semlor, a traditional Swedish pastry that is eaten between Fat Tuesday, or Fettisdagen, and Easter.

I realized that having my focus outside of me and on entertaining another person, I was able to finally shake loose that grouchiness that had taken over my day. I actually enjoyed our coffee break with our guest and I was able to finish my day at the office with the corners of my mouth turned up instead of down. Now I’m going to continue the entertaining streak and go entertain our kitty and cook dinner with my husband. It’s taco night, after all.