How the Wiggles Saved My Sanity

I've been spending a week setting up a financial management system for work. It's been tedious and brain-splitting. When I hit my nadir, I described the how I felt to Big Orange: "I feel like I've got a dagger and a paper towel stuck in my right eye." I grossed him out with the image of a paper towel stuck in my eye; the dagger, oddly enough, didn't seem to bother him.

I've been listening to my work iTunes to help soothe my soul as I've slaved away, cutting, pasting, running reports, compiling If/Then formulas, derriving charts, and checking my math. I have the following artists/albums loaded up for bear:

• Abba
• Love Actually Soundtrack
• Black Eyed Peas
• Classic Soundtracks (Casablanca, Key Largo, Sabrina, etc.)
• Clay Aiken (shut up)
• Depeche Mode
• Earl Scruggs and Friends
• Elvis Costello
• Kelly Clarkson
• Madonna
• Miles Davis
• Panic at the Disco!
• Mozart's Requiem
• Tom T. Hall
• Willie Nelson
• Some random American Idol Singles
• The Wiggles

Surprisingly, I keep loading up the Wiggles' album: Wiggly, Wiggly World, which showcases the Wiggles collaboration with important Australian and Kiwi artists such as Slim Dusty, Christine Anu, Rolf Harris (Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport), Kamahl, Human Nature, Tim Finn (of Split Endz fame), and Jimmy Little. Each tune is prefaced with an introduction. A Wiggle, usually Anthony, interviews the artists and asks them about the song they are about to perform.

I know I've been near the brink of insanity. Yesterday, I had proof positive that I'd been working on the spreadsheet too long: I thought the spreadsheet was sending me messages. It's possible! Afterall, the largest spreadsheet I worked on went to column CV (that's 74 columns, folks) and had 256 rows.

But, through it all, the Wiggles kept me from jumping out of my 15th floor office window in a fit of paranoid hysteria. They're cute, funny and their music is a salve to my soul. Maybe it's because I've enjoyed their music with my girls. Riley and I saw them in concert in 2004 (that's where I took the picture above). She's totally over them now, sadly. Maybe it's because they are actually very good musicians. Maybe it's their can-do attitude that's helped me climb this mountain of numbers. Maybe it's the silliness of "Another Cuppa" or the whistfulness of "Six Months in a Leaky Boat". Perhaps it's the sweetness of "I Love to Have a Dance with Dorothy." I really can't explain it. But I'm thankful for it nonetheless.