I started out slightly stressed yesterday and progressed to totally stressed.

Here’s how:

The day began with an email from a client who wanted to discuss his blog. I had two things to do yesterday morning, but I know this client, and I knew that he’d worry till he heard from me.

So I just raced through a couple of blog posts before calling him, and while we chatted I dealt with a group of emails on a site that should have launched over the weekend. There have been tech troubles, and then the designer couldn’t get the files up. So he sent them to me and I also couldn’t get them up. So I sent it to The Computer Guy, who uploaded them. Whereupon I found that the site had a variety of errors.

I went in to change them, and found that some were graphics, and couldn’t be changed. I emailed the designer about that as #2 son asked whether I was ready to go to the dentist, and it turned out that there was an error in the cutting. So I raced to do the text changes, and couldn’t put the files. So I called the computer guy, who told me where to look to make the changes that might make it possible.

At which point, with #2 son and #1 daughter standing waiting for me, I got caught in one of those Vortex of Doom situations, where I couldn’t get away from the error message without putting in the password and couldn’t put in the password till the error message closed, which it wouldn’t do because I hadn’t put in the password.

I think I may have said “damn it.”

So we left for the dentist with a live site full of errors.

In the dentist’s office I texted The Computer Guy, who took down the site till it could get fixed, and I also brooded about the two things I hadn’t gotten done that morning. In the panic before leaving, I had failed to take a book with me and therefore I had to be present for the cleaning, something which I avoid, and they also told me that I have to get a crown.

The dentist’s office people took the position that I was lucky. Most people have had crowns before my age, apparently, and many people have half a dozen of them, and here I was only having one. My insurance will pay half, too. The staff there behaved as though they were giving me good news, and as though having to shell out $612 for a crown next week, not to mention actually having to get the crown, which will probably involve dental work of some kind, was actually so much less than I deserved that I should feel blessed.

We got home around 2:00, and I tried once more to fix the problems with the late-launching site before giving up. The Computer Guy had refused to work with me on the new client, on the grounds that he doesn’t like her software, and I hope he feels guilty now that he sees what I go through when I have to work with other designers.

Seriously, I spent some time in discussion with The Art Teacher, and he agreed to work on the new prospect’s site, and gave me an estimate, and #1 daughter wrote up a proposal for the client, and we got it off to the client, and should hear back today on whether they want to proceed or not.

So I went on to the afternoon work, because I had deadlines. I did blogs for a couple of clients at lightning speed, and then set up a client’s Twitter account and listed them at the Twitter directories and so forth, and then got an email saying they’d decided in the marketing meeting not to do Twitter after all, but thanks, so I went in and deleted them.

By this point, it was time for dinner. #2 son had grilled steaks and mashed some potatoes and brought out a bag of cherries, and I was very grateful.

Off I went to choir practice, where we’re working on some nice music and I got to spend some time with CD trading work-related whines. Hers are always so much better than mine.

I have a site launching late and with errors? She was called by the police in the middle of the night to clean up a pool of blood from one of the residents who sliced open his wrist.

She also has a bunch of crowns.

Obviously, I should quit whining.

But before I do, let me mention that #2 son is leaving tomorrow with #1 daughter. They are going to visit #2 daughter, and then head down to #1’s place in the Deep South before taking #2 son to school. I’ll have only one left at home, and #2 son is the baby of the family, and also sometimes cooks dinner.

Yes, well, I have to catch up on yesterday’s work. No further time to whine or to brood, so it’s a good thing I got it all off my chest.