My wife and I had been invited by friends to come to their beach house for the weekend. It was going to be about a 300-mile, six-hour trip. I had some ambivalence about going. We were to arrive several hours before our friends and would have to pick up a key for the condo and then wait. I had never been to this location before and felt some hesitancy. Nonetheless, I agreed to go.

The week before we were to go was very busy. In addition to working everyday, I was out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings at meetings or classes. Tuesday and Thursday I was taking a computer repair class that met from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. Wednesday night I was at a Church Education meeting. All day Thursday I was at a workshop out of the office and then went to the computer class. I had been in classes from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. that day. I was feeling resentful of such a busy schedule even though it was self-chosen. The little voice was saying, "You never have anytime for yourself. You never get to do what you want. You always have a meeting of some sort."

Friday I was scheduled to be off work but had been asked to come in and teach a special class at 7:00 a.m. Upon arrival I learned that some staff members had called in sick and the class was cancelled. I could have stayed home. The little voice spoke up. "This is stupid. Nobody respects your time. Nobody cares if you are inconvenienced. Your classes are always getting cancelled. Nobody wants to learn anything you teach anyway."

I have been offering monthly classes at a counseling center. Wednesday morning I was interviewed on the local morning television news to talk about the upcoming class. I called Friday morning to ask how many people had called to sign up. I was told none and the class was being cancelled. Again I heard, "Why do you even bother to try. Obviously no one wants to hear what you have to say. You have been trying for a year with no success. Why don’t you just quit? It is hopeless."

That morning I was having tightness in the chest. I was thinking, "Maybe something is wrong. Your recent check up was okay but who knows? What if you get ill while away?"

I left work early in order to leave for the beach by noon. Because I was in class late the night before I had not had time to pack. Driving home I was hearing, "You always pack in advance. Now you are going to rush. You will forget something you need. Why does everything always happen to you? You never have the time you need."

When I got home I found that the stray dog which has been hanging around the neighborhood was at my house with my two dogs. "Great! This dog is probably sick and will make my dogs sick just like what happened to my cat. I need to stay home, catch that dog, and take it away. I need to be home to protect my dogs. I’ll come back and find them sick. Why does something like this always happen when I am going out of town?"