Workmares

I've been having work dreams lately. While not necessarily nightmarish, they are still intense and laden with anxiety. I hate that.

Isn't it enough that I spend the majority of my waking hours at work? I don't think expecting a little respite as I sleep is unreasonable? Apparently, my overactive psyche feels differently.

Last night, I dreamed that I had landed at the airport only to walk up to the car rental desk and learn that they didn't have my reservation. I felt the familiar twinges in the pit of my belly that come when I slip into "Plan B" mode, which in my line of work, is nearly second nature.

I am overwhelmed with exasperation because the travel industry is full of people who are battered on a daily basis by rude, self-absorbed individuals and thus, at some point the flight attendants, car rental clerks, TSA staff and hotel workers just check out. It's a matter of survival, I think. Customer service for them is an oxymoron. They exist to punch a clock. Of course, there are exceptions but generally, business travel has become a chore.

So, in my dream I look at the guy and ask him to check his computer again as I fumble around in my backpack looking for the reservation email I printed out before leaving home. "You aren't in here," he says and just as my heart starts to kick it up a notch, I find my reservation and hand it to him.

He takes the paper, looks at it, raises his eyebrows and says, "Your reservation is for the Nashville Airport branch."

"Of course it is," I say and not without a measure of sarcasm, "so can you please ring the lot and get my car ready?"

"Ma'am, this is the Memphis Airport," and with that, he hands me back my piece of paper and calls out for the next person in line.

Inside, I FREAK. Badly. I start to sweat and struggle to contain the tears that are threatening to spill over at any second.

Then, I give my head a shake and try to figure out how to fix the situation so I can get to my appointment in time. I don't give a single thought as to how this could have happened. I turn around and the airport has completely disappeared. In it's place is a wheat field. What the hell?

I turn back to the car rental desk and inexplicably, I am at Penn Station trying to figure out which train to take.

I am worried that the ice in my samples will melt before I get to Nashville. From NEW YORK CITY!!! Bizzaro.

That's when I woke up; fuzzy, in a sweat and with a barrel of anxiety-fueled adrenaline coursing through my body. Just a Jim Dandy way to start the day.

I have a big meeting tomorrow morning in Nashville for which I have been preparing all week. It's important that it goes well but clearly, I am not managing my stress. I am grateful, however, that my travel tribulations were all just a bad dream.

I did however, check my reservation for my air tickets, hotel and car. Because I'm a sixth-sense, superstitious, my-mind-is-trying-to-tell-me-something weirdo.