Meltdown

It was inevitable.

Yesterday - home sick with migraine (a rare event, me taking a sick day).

Today - worked in spite of dull headache. New equipment training session sprung on me. Was miserable.

Bailed out as soon as I could, and went home to crash. High winds and a power outage woke me up abruptly. A thunderstorm soon followed. The power outage is widespread. I'm irritated because it is hot in the house, and dark. I had planned to have some down time this evening, but sitting around in a hot, dark house is not what I had in mind.

So now I'm at the pub (but not drinking - I cut way back because of studying). Had a hot meal and a club soda and feel marginally better. There is air conditioning, computer access, good eats, trivia and TVs, and a few of our friends are here. But I just sit here huddled over my laptop, not feeling very social. PDM keeps trying to make me feel better, and I keep disappointing him by being non-responsive. I'm stressed and crabby and tired. There is a huge weight on my shoulders and this is not going to change until after my test. I just want to be left alone. (And fed. I like it when he cooks me a nice dinner.) It doesn't help that we keep getting new stuff at work - a major software upgrade next week, plus lots of new hardware. I have to learn all that stuff during the day, then go home and study all of the test material. Some days it is too much.

And if I haven't driven all of my readers away with my pity party post, I promise to post about something other than my stupid test next time.

30-Minute Meal, My Ass.

PDM and I both worked late tonight. Again. I got home first, and started cruising our cookbooks for some supper ideas. I was looking for something relatively simple and easy, since I have had two long days in a row, and had developed a migraine somewhere between 5-6pm, and did not arrive home until 7pm. Not the best time to try anything fancy. I flipped through a few books and finally turned to a Rachel Ray 30-minute meal cookbook. The "chicken piccata pasta toss" didn't sound too hard. It actually sounded pretty good. I made a list and then went for a quick trip to the grocery store. But as usual, the "30-minute meal" took me around an hour and a half to prepare, and that included getting some major help from PDM once he got home. It was after 9pm when we ate.

I have never cooked one of these 30-minute recipes in less than 45 minutes. Anyone else have this problem, or is it just me? I realize that I am very slow with chopping up meat and veggies, but I do not see how this could add an extra hour to the prep time. I am usually good at multitasking, but not so much in the kitchen...