April 8, 2013 I let my boss, Mr. Masterson, stress me out again today. I had drafted a memo for him to review, and I was afraid he would find a lot of silly errors in it like he often does. When he brought the memo back to my desk, I knew better than to look at it right away. I was hungry and ready for lunch. I was also on the phone with a difficult customer at the time. I went ahead and picked up the piece of paper and immediately saw that it was covered in red ink, the color of the ink itself being one of the things I found most offensive about his corrections. I immediately grew hot, and I know my face was probably red. It's as if I could feel my blood pressure rising. My gut reaction was to slam down the phone, grab the memo, and march straight to his office to tell him what I thought about him and his silly edits. Instead, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and quickly resolved the customer's call. I put the letter in my desk drawer and went to retrieve my friend Judy for lunch. I told her I was having a rough morning and asked if we could go for a walk before eating our lunch. I said I wasn't ready to talk about the issue. I just needed some time to clear my head. She agreed. We walked through the gardens surrounding the building several times without speaking. I didn't think about work at all. Instead, I focused on the beautiful, warm spring day—one of the most pleasant we've had in weeks. I thought about what I'd like to do this weekend, since the weather promises to be nice for the next few days. After our walk, I felt so much better. The fresh air and the way I intentionally forced myself to focus on other things did me a world of good. At lunch, Judy and I discussed the situation briefly. She sympathized with my frustrations, complimented me on how I had handled the matter, and encouraged me to review the boss's comments with an open mind and not to do anything too rash. I thanked her for her advice. After lunch, I focused on a few tasks that I needed to get done today, before finally taking the memo out of the drawer. I read it over several times, including Mr. Masterson's comments. I quickly corrected the issues that I agreed were legitimate concerns. I also made a few of his proposed changes that, in my opinion, weren't errors but merely a difference in preference. Some things aren't worth the argument. On one or two items, I still feel my original wording is best. I made note of this, in a less offensive ink color, and left it on Mr. Masterson's desk after he left for the afternoon. I'll ask his opinion on them tomorrow, after I've had even more time to calm down.