Writing on the Awful Day
I didn’t get the opportunity to post yesterday, partly from a lack of time, and partly because I developed a nasty case of the “blahs” that started as a sniffle and was full-blown by early evening. In another post I talked about paying attention to the signs, but I was referring to the physical signs around us like “caution”, “stop” or “warning”. Today I’m thinking of the signs that seem to indicate whether it’s going to be an awful or awesome day.
Caution: Image Credit: Eugene Zemlyanskiy
This isn’t going to turn into a whine-fest, but I’ve got to tell the story. Sometimes you’re doomed to have a crappy day, and you typically see it coming. I should have seen the signs that the day wasn’t going to play my way as soon as I woke up sleep deprived from going to bed three hours after my normal bedtime and sporting a couple of largish blemishes on my forehead and chin. Less than 30 minutes later, my daughter spilled a Danimals yogurt smoothie in the car on the way to PreK. I know this sounds like nothing much so far, but let us remember bad days tend to be composed of a series of incidents worsening in degree as the day drags on, and that’s exactly how my day was shaping up.
In the early afternoon, I had to make a trip to Atlanta to pick up something that I’d purchased online that required local pickup and cash payment. I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a terrible procrastinator. I have a checkcard for my credit union, and because I hate carrying cash, I planned to stop at an ATM close to the destination. I didn’t bother to check if the card was in my purse before I left the house–an important detail, given that my husband often forgets to put the card back after he uses it.
45 minutes away from home and five minutes from the pickup point I decided to get the cash from the ATM. I opened my wallet, and of course, no card. My husband had the cards to my other accounts, and all I was left with was a credit card with no established pin number for cash advances. Still not a big deal, I know, but I happen to bank with a credit union that seems to have only five locations in the United States, and the nearest one was several miles away. Then it began raining.
Traffic/Image credit: Epsos.de
For those of you who don’t live in areas prone to high levels of traffic, let me assure you that only a miniscule amount of rain can wreak havoc on rush hour and intensify an already miserable commute. Had I gotten the cash closer to home, earlier in the day, upon discovering that the card was missing, I would have dodged the rush hour bullet and salvaged the day. Instead, I had to take a detour to the bank, wait in a long teller line, and go back to pick up my purchases. A trip that should have taken only two hours stretched into four and a half–compliments of the dense, sluggish traffic–and by the time I got to PreK, I felt like crawling in the bed and hiding under the covers. I declared the day a wash and decided on a do-over for the next day.
Because I was delayed on my trip, I picked my daughter up late from PreK and had to pay the absurd “aftercare” fee. It was still drizzling outside (and on me) when I got Ivy buckled into the booster seat, and then out of nowhere, I got sideswiped by a pity-party moment. Maybe it was a combination of being cooped up in the car too long, normal daily stresses or the totally gross weather. Most likely it was all of the above. I let myself boo-hoo and comfort my inner-crybaby briefly, while vaguely noting the fact that I’d neglected to eat at all the whole day and this sudden onset of emotional nonsense was a result of hunger.
As soon as I pulled into the driveway, I sighed with relief. Things couldn’t get worse now that I was back at home. I feel like the world is like a big baseball field, and once I hit home plate, I’m safe. Then I walked in to discover that my two small terror dogs had destroyed a full bag of trash, strewing it across the entire downstairs.
I promptly put both of the dogs in the backyard and shut the blinds where I didn’t have to see their awful little faces through the glass door. I normally love my dogs, but I was in no mood to play nice-nice at that moment. I then swept up a nightmare of chewed paper towels, shredded meat packs, and miscellaneous litter, cursing under my breath. I was so thankful for bedtime a short couple of hours later.
In the future, at the first sign that the day is taking a turn for the worse, I’m considering just crawling back into bed and asking for a “do-over”.
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Yep, I would have been a sniffling wreck by the end of that day. The little bothers do add up until you feel like you're carrying an elephant on your back.
It really is. Fortunately, I haven't had any really awful days like that since this post, and revisiting it today reminds me of how glad I am about that fact. Thanks for reading!
It really is. Fortunately, I haven't had any really awful days like that since this post, and revisiting it today reminds me of how glad I am about that fact. Thanks for reading!
I’ve often wondered, do we attract the crap in our lives by our attitude, or does the crap in our lives affect our attitude? I’m guessing it’s a combination of the two. Looks like you survived to write another day, but I agree, that sounds like a pretty awful one.