My week started with a little bit of stress (personal cell phone died with all my phone numbers), then, as Monday arrived, got even more stressful. By Wednesday morning, the stress level had subsided. It comes with the job and it is usually the cycle.

The stress at the beginning of the week was also fueled by a random announcement I heard on the radio about a survey that said that newspaper reporting was the top job to avoid — maybe that was because of the stress reporters endure! I don’t like hearing reports like this because this industry needs new blood. Yeah, the pay isn’t great but in order for it to continue and succeed, we need young, eager and curious reporters. I was kind of “old” starting out here at age 30 — partly because I was making better money tending bar than my starting pay here — but I grew to love my job, stress or not. Coincidentally, over the past two years, we’ve lost two young reporters and a young copy editor to other jobs.

And, as always on Mondays, the onslaught of editorial copy — press releases, columns, letters, obituaries, staff articles — begins. Then there are the phone calls, the texts, the visits, the reporters’ and production staff questions, and the email inquiries to deal with. Getting 80 percent of the newspaper done in two-plus days is always a welcomed challenge, but stressful nonetheless.

And this week was one of those weeks where putting one foot in front of the other was a struggle. Ever have those weeks? You may think I am a bit wacky but I do believe in biorhythms and, because of the extra stress I was feeling, I had to look mine up ... Plugged in my birth date and, voila, found out my intellectual biorhythm was on a deep slide with rock bottom hitting today, Wednesday, April 20.

So, I took a few breaks on Tuesday, gathered my thoughts, smelled the roses, found some funny stuff to read, and talked to myself about life not being so bad. 

Ah, I feel much better this morning. Feeling stressed about work, family life, etc.? Get out, get away, think happy thoughts and brush that weight off your shoulders. You’ll feel much better. Hopefully.