The Stresses of being too Connected

Have you ever had one of those days were you felt like something inside of you was just going to snap under stress? As I type this, I’m sitting in a room, alone, listening to soothing music on Slacker Radio. To go along with the music, I’ve got a CAO La Traviata burning in the ashtray and a steaming cup of coffee aside it.

Today has been what seems like one gigantic ball of stress. Since I awoke this morning, my cell phone has been making non-stop noise. If it wasn’t the sound of someone calling to talk, it was the sound pf my email, text, voicemail, or blackberry messenger alerts. Just when I thought one issue has been dealt with and behind me, another came roaring forward.

On top of my Blackberry causing my blood pressure to rise, my house phone seems to have rung out more in this single day than it has all of last week combined. Couple the noises of being connected to the grid with my overly clingy pooch and you’ve the workings for a stress related breakdown. No matter where I go within the house, the stresses seemed to find me.

While the stresses I mentioned would be enough to drive me crazy, on top of all that, my wife insisted on showing me each and every free sample she received at a Babies R Us store wide baby shower for expecting women. I know these things are important to my wife, but today was just not the day to show me the inner workings of a baby bottle which we won’t be using until July.

More than once I tried to simply find myself a quiet spot to do something fun, to try and take my mind off of the things that were picking at my sanity. Unfortunately the stresses got the better of me and I simply couldn’t enjoy myself with any of the things that I normally find to be fun and entertaining.

My wife, who I love dearly, could see the stress on my face and was kind enough to run out and pick up some dinner so that we wouldn’t have to cook. After dinner, she went out to a movie with a friend and gave me a quit house to try and unwind in. I’ve turned my Blackberry off, turned the ringer down on the house phone, disconnected from Twitter and Facebook, turned off my email client, and am finally starting to feel the stresses of the day melt away.

Days where I get this stressed are few and far between, but they do arise from time to time. It is times like this where I wish that I wasn’t so plugged in. With so much going on each and every day, I find that a day or two of being disconnected is exactly what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately it isn’t often that I can afford to turn it all off without the burden of being buried in correspondence when its time to get back on the grid.

I’m curious as to what you do when stress begins to build up beyond normal levels? Being winter with snow and ice on the ground, I’m unable to spend an hour at the range sending lead flying at paper targets, which I find to be a fantastic way to de-stress in the warmer months.