There is no question that I have been a bit too stressed out lately. Some of it I have put on myself and I’ve been trying to work through that. Some of it is unexpected stress and I’m just trying to get to the other side. But it doesn’t matter what type of stress it is, stress sucks and I have been feeling the effects of it a lot. The mental effects of stress are obvious, but I’ve been noticing the physical effects too. I ignored them for a while thinking they were related to other things, but it’s clear that my stress got to my body.
By the time you are reading this post, the results from the election should have been announced. As I am writing it, the ballots are being counted and the results should be done in a few hours. This has been a huge part of my stress lately. It’s good stress since I have been working hard toward something I care about so much. But at the same time if things don’t go well for my slate I know I will take it hard. I hope that by the time you are all reading this that I have been celebrating on social media that we have won many of the seats we were running for.
Most evenings during the past few weeks have been filled with doing election related tasks. I had different events to go to, work I had to finish, campaigning to do, and other little tasks that needed to be done that I couldn’t do for one reason or another during work. But on Tuesday night (the night before we found out the results), there was no more election work to do. The ballots had to all be at the post office by that point so nothing else was necessary. We had done all we could do and hope that it was enough. I knew that being home that night was going to be weird, so I decided I wanted to go out and just do anything. I didn’t have a plan in mind, I just knew I didn’t want to sit at home and stress out.
My friend Dani was able to be free after work and we tried to think of a few options of what we could do. We thought about seeing a movie or something, but there wasn’t much we wanted to see. And I don’t know if I could have sat still through a movie. We ended up deciding to get some dinner and going to the beach since neither of us goes to the beach that often. There’s a new restaurant near me called Buratta House that she had been wanting to try, so we got some sandwiches from there and drove to the beach.
We found a free meter only 2 blocks from the beach and walked over to where there were a few tables. It wasn’t the fanciest area to be in, but at least we were at the water and could sit down and eat. After our sandwiches, we walked over to Coldstone for some ice cream before heading over to the pier to watch the sun go down. I wasn’t sure if the sunset would be an epic one, but even with the colors being a bit muted it was still gorgeous.
We just hung out on the pier for a while and watched the sun go down. It was a peaceful evening and the beach wasn’t too crowded since it was a weeknight and most schools are back in session. I live so close to the beach and I rarely do this. It felt like such a treat but this was really a simple thing for us to do. The drive over was maybe 15 minutes and if you didn’t count the food we bought it was totally free. But I think if I did this more often I wouldn’t be as grateful for it as I am when I do make it to the beach to watch the sun go down.
After the sunset, we headed back to the car and were trying to figure out if there was anything else we wanted to do. Somehow, we ended up at Target which kind of was a random and fun adventure. We were wandering through the beauty and skincare aisles looking at all the new products and just having fun seeing what Target was selling. I don’t go to Target that often and this one recently was remodeled so they sell a lot of nicer things now. It almost reminded me of being younger and going to the mall and looking at everything in every store. I also figured wandering through Target would help me get in a bunch of steps for the day.
Eventually, we had to leave our adventure at Target because I had to get home and get to bed. But between getting food, watching the sunset, and randomness at Target; it ended up being such a fun evening. I was looking for an evening to distract me and help me have a less stressful night and it was so much more. I love when something that you don’t really plan ends up being one of those great and fun nights out.
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