I logged off in a bad mood

I logged off annoyed last night, and for once it wasn’t because somebody on my team had done something ridiculous. I was already in a mood before I put the headset on. The game just gave me somewhere to put it.

I’d spent most of the afternoon trying to sort out my desk. One cable became every cable, and somehow a small tidy-up ate the time I’d meant to spend outside. By the evening, everything looked better and I felt worse. Naturally, I decided winning a few rounds would fix that.

It did not. I got quiet, played badly, and then felt embarrassed about caring so much. A friend asked whether I was okay. I said I was tired, which was true, but not the whole answer. I was disappointed in the day and taking it personally.

I sent her a message after I logged off. Nothing dramatic—just that I’d been a bit off and it wasn’t anything she’d done. She replied with a photo of the dinner she’d burned. Somehow that helped more than a motivational speech would have.

The desk still looks good this morning. I’m pleased about that now. I also took my coffee away from it, because apparently I needed to leave the chair, not buy another thing to put beside it.

— Emma