Panicking with the Best of Them

While I often tell people I've achieved Peak Competence in my life (which of course might imply that it's all downhill from here), there are times when I still have the lizard-brain panic reation when something at work hits me the wrong way. Today was one of those times. I do the usual things to calm my vagus nerve, like taking deep breaths and such, but the thing that usually brings me out of it is reminding myself that I've been through ever so much worse in my career and have come out of it just fine. And so it was today, the obstacle was overcome in fairly short order and I reconnected with some old work friends in the process, so really a win-win. And I packed up at the end of the day after helping record a session in which I had zero interest (it was shepherded by a partner I support so I kind of had to record) and was pleasantly surprised to be able to leave at my usual time. Commute was pretty sweet too, I think I made it home in under 90 minutes which is usually unheard of because I have to walk two avenues and take two different kinds of mass transit. No notes, no complaints!