Squeezing in a nervous breakdown

I'm freaking out! Can the panic attack be far behind?

OK, perhaps I am exaggerating, but I'm definitely feeling a higher level of anxiety than I have grown accustomed to experiencing.

For people who have known me for most of a adult and professional life, this would wound a bit odd. I used to be one of those Type A folks. Long hours, long days, always pressing. That was my story.

It worked pretty well in California.

But for the last three years, I've been living life at a slower pace at work and at home. I got pretty good at saying no to optional obligations, personally and professionally.

But the pace has picked up lately. I've got stuff going on. And I'm not used to it. I have recently started keeping a calendar again. When I started doing it, it seemed like a bit of a joke, since most of the days were blank. A lot of them still are, but having some filled-in dates, and some travel plans on top of it, has got me a bit nervous.

If my old friends could only see me now. I used to be busy being busy. Now, I've been busy being a bum. It's damn tough to go back again.

A night reminiscing reminiscing about sunny days gone by

It's rather amazing to find that when I have a life, and life it, I don't have much time to post to the blog.

Last weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of taking my daughter out to lunch for her birthday. And while I did find time to write a post about that, I haven't spent much time in recreational writing since then.

On Friday, a couple of friends and former coworkers were coming through Portland and I met them for dinner and drinks. We spent far too few fun-filled hours sharing stories of the old days (roughly about 3-8 years ago) when we worked together. There were tales of people we encountered along the way.

Two members of our party are now living here in the Northwest, still enduring a winter than refuses to yield to spring, in spite of the longer days an blossoms on the trees, now being beaten off the branches by those mythical April showers. But the third member of our triumvirate still lives in sunny Southern California. I'm sure you can tell who is the sun worshipper by the photo.

It fascinates me how sometimes time can melt away when friends or family get together after an absence. Weeks, or months -- even years -- can disappear, almost as if no time at all has passed. But for our little trio, a surprising amount of time has passed. It's been about five years since we shared a good meal, good drink, good stories and good laughs.

My friends, Julie and Cindy, and I worked together at a newspaper in Palm Springs. Working in an environment of deadline pressure and high expectations forged some tight bonds, and forced some others to unravel.

I feel lucky to have made some good friends during the years I spend in California. But there is a sadness to it too, realizing that circumstances and distance have scattered us to all corners of the country. I don't see so many of the people that I grew to admire and respect, personally and professionally.

But for a few hours on Friday, time not only stood still, but the clock turned backwards to a time when the 21st century was just beginning and the sun shone every day. And the days the sun didn't shine were so unusual that it made news.