I was on a high this morning because, for a change, my morning ran smoothly. A quick, calm drop off to day care and no looney's on the road meant that by the time I swept into work I had a smile on my face.

Which was promptly ripped off my face at lunch time when the Finance Manager walked into my office and proceeded to "ask" me to cover reception while she takes the reception staff out to lunch.

Well, that's lovely - but choosing to take 50% of your staff out to lunch when the other 50% is unavailable due to a staff induction day is a really stupid idea.

Why is it stupid? Well, it's stupid because now you have to ask me to cover reception, just as I'm stepping out have lunch myself. This is not the way to get in my good books. In fact, it will cause me to get cranky, and I will grow crankier still, thinking about your stupidity and your craptacular timing, not to mention your rubbish organisational skills and inability to make sensible judgements.

And, no, your offer to bring me back a soy-organic-vegan-chai-latte will not make it better. It will only make it worse. Far, far worse.

So I'm hungry. And staring at someone who is asking me to be hungry a while longer so she can toddle off and not be hungry, but is happy to bring back a cup of unsatisfyingly healthy, badly flavoured warm water.

Damn right I'm pulling up my cranky pants! And I'm pulling them up Steve Urkel style just to prove the point.

But I decided that since I am off to Adelaide next week for work I should invest in a pair of 'normal' pants.

My Team Leader has these amazing pants that I would totally mug her for - but instead I decided just to buy a pair.

It's not often that I find awesome clothes locally. But funnily enough some decent shops have been schlepping their way into Darwin, and this has made me very happy.

The local Country Road store was zero help, but that's why the shopping gods created ONLINE STORES!

As a result, Country Road online shopping was sourced and I managed to grab:

Flare Pant

Seamfree Stripe Tank

There's also a really cute boyfriend blazer but they don't have my size...sigh. They've having a 60% off sale at the moment, so make the most of that, people!!

But my sadness over the blazer was short lived when I found this on the Forever New website:

Bethany Bow Jacket

Yes, I'm using shopping as a way to make myself feel better, and to an extent it has worked quite nicely, thank you very much.

But I can't escape the realisation that work has been making me wear my cranky pants more often lately. And the few people that have been driving me up the wall are going to suffer the wrath of a slightly stressed, high strung, working mummy if they don't piss off and leave me alone!

I think it's the time of year - and the fact that I'm struggling to balance the working mummy scales. Particularly in the coming weeks when I'll be away quite a lot for work, and I've not been away from the Toddler for more than a night in her whole life.

It feels uncomfortable and strange, and no amount of shopping will make that feeling go away.

Which is quite inconvenient, I must say.

I would turn to chocolate for some solace, but my doctor ruined that after our chat last week. Bitch.

Maybe days like this are a sign that I should just pull the quilt over my head and hide from life.

Running away is always much easier than trying to answer questions, such as, 'do I really want to work?'...'do I really want to stay at home'?...

Am I as think as I drunk I am? Sadly, no. But since I'm at work, it's most likely for the best. Or not.

I do think it's entirely possible that I'm completely losing my grip on reality.