How to Handle Stress

  • Jam 39 miniature marshmallows up your nose and try to sneeze them out.
  • Find out what a frog in the blender really looks like.
  • Forget the diet center and send yourself a candy gram.
  • Dance naked in front of your pets.
  • Tattoo “OUT TO LUNCH” on your forehead.
  • Buy a subscription to Sleazoid Weekly and send it to your bosses wife.
  • Relaxing by mentally reflecting on your favorite episode of the “Flintstones” during an important finance meeting.
  • Sit naked on a shelled hard-boiled egg.
  • Refresh yourself; put your tongue on a cold steel guardrail.
  • Tell your boss to blow it out his mule, and let him figure it out.
  • Polish your car with earwax.
  • Bill your doctor for the time spent in his waiting room.
  • Lie on your back; eat celery, using your navel as a salt dipper.
  • Make a tape recording of a lion roaring and play it while frolicking with your kitten in front of the neighbors.
  • Ask your neighbor if anything got broken in last night’s earth quake.
  • Ride up the escalator facing backwards.
  • Write a letter to the editor condemning scientists for trying to wipe out whole species like the AIDs virus.
  • Phone the minister of finance and demand a tax increase.
  • Send a letter of resignation from your boss to your boss’ boss.
  • Write your boss’ resume and submit it to various headhunters.
  • Phone your dentist and tell him you’ve changed your mind, you want that wisdom tooth back.
  • Tell your husband/wife he/she was adopted. <duh, huh?>
  • Phone the university and report that you are an extraterrestrial and would they volunteer to return to your home planet.
  • Phone any government agency and ask them “So just what is it you people do all day anyway?”

Family Stress Test

How to score: 0 if the statement is never true, 1 if it is rarely true, 2 if it is sometimes true, and 3 if it is always true.

  1. ___ Conversations often begin with “Put the gun down, and then we can talk”.
  2. ___ The school principal has your number on speed-dial.
  3. ___ The cat is on Valium.
  4. ___ People have trouble understanding your kids, because they learned to speak through clenched teeth.
  5. ___ You are trying to get your four-year-old to switch to decaf.
  6. ___ The number of jobs held down by family members exceeds the number of people in the family.
  7. ___ No one has *time* to wait for microwave TV dinners.
  8. ___ “Family meetings” are often mediated by law enforcement officials.
  9. ___ You have to check your kid’s day-timer to see if he can take out the trash.
  10. ___ No-Doze gives you bulk rates.

How you rate:

  • 30 – a perfect score. Welcome to the neighborhood!
  • 20-29 – You are doing reasonably well, but still have too little going on in your life. Crank it up.
  • 10-19 – You have mastered some of the aspects of the stress-filled life, but still have a long way to go. Have you considered a parallel career path?
  • 0- 9 – Enjoying all that extra time? What do you *do* anyway?