I love autumn. There's just something about the smell of the air and the changing colors of the leaves that are so beautiful to me.

I'll admit that the past week+ I've spent mainly recouping physically and mentally from a "perfect storm" of events that resulted in a truly chaotic time for me at work. Despite the beautiful autumn weather this weekend, I barely had the energy to move and mainly relaxed as much as I could. The good thing about it is that I was able to minimize my exposure to triggers (other than the few times my cockatiel was in a whiny mood). The bad thing is that I realized I was isolating myself from the "outside world" in general, something I don't want to get in the habit of doing again.

I'm slowly learning about many of the local events in the area and outdoors groups that are into hiking and skiing (activities I haven't done as much since leaving DC). I need to start joining some of them to interact with the outside world more. I went to Yom Kippur services at one synagogue last Wednesday, but I'm not sure if I'll join that particular congregation. I understand their desire to have services in a multi-purpose open space to gain a sense of community but between the uncomfortable chairs, the cinderblock walls, and the linoleum floors (not to mention some of the poor lighting choices), I found myself distracted by the sounds and visuals around me instead of immersing myself in the program. Perhaps another location - with carpeting to dampen sound transmission - would better suit my needs. 

I'm at least enjoying the one outlet I have singing in an acapella group. It does have its misophonia trigger moments with me though, mainly because two of the members are always chewing gum which is very distracting/annoying to me. (How can people chew gum during a singing rehearsal is beyond me...) We'll see how it goes over the next couple of rehearsals but if it continues, I might need to ask the "culprits" if they could be so kind to leave their gum outside of rehearsal.

Okay, I just dated myself with that Fred the Dunkin' Donuts guy commercial from the 80's  but after having done not just one, but TWO all nighters this past weekend - to meet three deadlines (one of which a HUGE client), I decided to take the day off and re-energize myself. I swear... I may have done all-nighters a lot in grad school but I'm getting too old to do them now. What can I say? All the joys of being a company Owner-in-Training.  :-)

At least the downtime has given me a chance to catch my breath and take care of myself a bit (even if it was just enjoying a 3 p.m. nap with my cockatiel cuddling in my cheek. It has been a rough couple of weeks - misophonia-wise too. Yesterday I met with a couple of my clients to go over a project and one person came in eating a cookie from a crinkley wrapper. Later in the meeting, he kept flicking the pen clip on the cap with his fingernail. I *so* wanted him to stop, but I didn't feel comfortable asking him to do so. A couple of weeks ago at a different client's office, I sat next to one of the financiers of a project - who I only met for the first time at that meeting. He kept spinning his pen back and forth on top of his thumb. It finally got to the point where I asked him once if he could stop doing it, because it was distracting... He stopped for about five minutes then went back to the pen spinning again. I got so frustrated but the only other solution I could do to cope during the meeting was to use my hair as a blinder.

One drawback to my day of rest today is while relaxing by the TV, I encountered the most annoying commercial I've seen in a while. It's the new Cinnamon Toast Crunch commercial - where they made a music video called "Milkface." It starts off with a person picking up the bowl of cereal and slurping it. Perhaps they thought it was clever, but they must've had the microphone an inch away from the person slurping because it was horrifically loud and annoying. I couldn't mute it fast enough! It's a shame though. The video looked fun, but there was no way in hell I was going to LIS TEN to another second of it!

If I was ever a regular eater of that cereal (which I'm not), that commercial would make me boycott it! (I'm sure, quite the opposite response they'd desire.) Come to think of it... I've never bought any product whose commercials trigger my misophonia. Hmmmmmm..... Very interesting....