"I can do it! I can have it all!"

Tina Fey in 30 Rock, from avclub.com

(Scene described here because I can't find a clip of it and it'll probably get taken down anyways). There's a scene in 30 Rock where Tina Fey's character is stopped at airport security because she has a sandwich. When presented with the choice of leaving it behind so she can go through, she decides to stand there and eat it in the most pitiful way I've ever seen anyone do anything, and yells "I can do it! I can have it all!" through a mouthful of sandwich.

I've recently appropriated this phrase, and I plan to use it as the epitaph on my tombstone when I die because it describes my life perfectly. A friend recently asked me how I was able to teach a workshop, throw a party, attend a grueling practice, work my 10-6 (and beyond) job with a 2 hour daily commute, teach two classes, and then go take workshops and perform twice at a bellydance festival three hours away within a week's space. I shrugged and said I had no idea.

The sad thing is, I'm hardly a rarity in this community and the area in which I live. The DC area and the bellydance community are replete with ridiculous overacheivers like myself, and although I can't begin to understand the reason why we take on so damn much, I have witnessed the effects: The Freaking Plague. We all operate at the absolute edge of our health and immune function as a norm, where the tiniest thing, be it a change in the wind or sick friend or meeting a friend's new cat or the addition of just one more article to write, can launch us headlong into sickness. What follows is an epidemiological nightmare. You can usually chart the spread of disease over social media:

Person A: I have [event] coming up! I'm so stressed but so excited!
Person B: I will be attending/helping out/giving you a plethora of hugs! I'm excited too!
Person A: [Event] is over! I can relax and stop firebombing my fatigued and depleted immune system which has been kept afloat by stress hormones all this time!
Person B: Hooray!
Person A: I'm sick.
Person B: I'm sick.
Person We Didn't Already Know was connected to Person B: I'm sick.
Large Crowd: We're sick!

Ok, so that played out like a Monty Python sketch (get on with it), but you get the picture. For the sake our individual health and that of our society, we need to start applying the gastric bypass band to our lives, and just learn to say "No thanks, I'm full." If not, we'll end up needing witty epitaphs much sooner than we expect.



Ok, that last bit was overly dramatic. I was just trying to tie it all together. I'll just go eat a sandwich instead.