Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Not a Good Day

Ever have one of those days when you know you're screwed before you even get out of bed?

Like, say, you wake up in the middle of the night to an aftermath of cat vomit, and then later you wake up in a jolt, coughing so hard you honest-to-god worry that your lungs are about to make their grand debut outside of your body cavity?

And what if said coughing fit was immediately preceded by a dream whereby you began choking to death?

And what if, say, you normally set two alarms at night — the "hey, you should get up soon" alarm, and then another that chimes in at the last minute telling you you have to get up, or else — and then you realize at 6:40 a.m. (starring groggy-eyed at the alarm) that you forgot to set Alarm #2 and so only have 10 minutes to get out of bed and get ready for work?

And what if, in your haste, you left your apartment without the Nalgene bottle full of water you pack daily, or even your lunch?

And then, midway to work you pass a gas station and realize gas has finally come down a few cents and — thank God! — you're almost on empty and so will need to fill up when you go out for lunch (you'll have to go out for lunch, after all, since you didn't have time to pack one).

So you make a mental note to yourself, work up a thirst by sprinting from the parking lot to your desk, and then reach for your wallet so you can buy some water only to realize...

That...

Yes...

Your wallet isn't there.

So you go through the permutations of where it might be and are gripped with the terrible fear that you may have dropped it when you briefly went out last night to run an errand — because you're about 90% certain it was in your bag then.

So you call the only person who has spare keys to your apartment. Their work whistle blows about 90 minutes later than yours, so you're hoping they're nearby and can "go check" for that elusive wallet, full of credit cards, cash and — yes — your driver's license.

But the phone just rings. And rings.

And rings.

And you're out of gas. And you have no water, no lunch, no breakfast.

You return to your car, search for your wallet (no luck), and count your spare change (intended for laundry tonight), rationing out enough (you hope) for a couple gallons of gas and (you think) a bottle of water.

And then you remember that gas is $3.14 a gallon, not $2.

But 1 gallon, coupled with the 1/2 you already have in there should be more than enough.

Right?

Right?!

Yes. You tell yourself.

It will be enough.

You log in to your credit accounts online to see if there are any charges you didn't approve (in case you did lose it last night after all).

Nothing so far.

So maybe it's home on top of your desk.

Maybe it's not.

Because even though the circumstances of the day are entirely your doing you know that, most often, the consequences are not.

***

But, anyway. I don't know about you, but I hate days like that.

6 comments:

Michael K said...

I'm sure you'll find it. I had a similar freak out moment when I was sure I'd lost my phone (again) about a week ago. It was in my pocket.

thirdworstpoetinthegalaxy said...

Michael - The last time my cell phone turned up missing, I searched around for it for hours, retraced my steps, and eventually called it only to have it do the special ring it does when I'm on the other line (i.e. someone was using it).

I called my phone company and they said it'd been in use, making several phone calls, from the moment I noticed it missing. Whoever stole it even surfed the web; and since I didn't pay for the web feature, that was a per minute charge.

I'm hoping that's not the case here, and appreciate the kind thoughts regarding my finding it.

Unacademic Advisor said...

Karma? I'm not sure it deserves the blame here. You know I love you, T, but who didn't set the alarm? Who, consequently, forgot the nalgene bottle, the lunch, and most likely the wallet? It wasn't karma, luck, or fate.

I know that on the one hand it's nice to blame someone or something else when bad things happen, but on the other hand, you can't control karma. Well, not directly, anyway. Personally, I like knowing that I caused days like this because then I can at least have a hope of doing something about it.

Besides, I think you do a lot to earn some pretty good karma, so I'm sure that everything will work out OK.

thirdworstpoetinthegalaxy said...

Un Ad - Busted! I thought the same thing as I wrote this, actually, and was hesitant to keep the title. This was mostly my doing, after all. Fatigue and coughing fit aside. I have plenty of other things I can blame on karma.

Think I kept it as it was mostly because I was more worried about karma kicking me in the teeth when I went home: i.e. instead of just being left at home, what if it was stolen (that's what happened when my cell phone disappeared, after all)?

I may revise to be more clear there.

Pamela said...

I work 2 miles from home.. so I could actually walk if I had to do so.

I've had a few days sort of like this but NOT NEAR as bad.

hope tomorrow is better

radialRelish said...

So it was at home? I need to know. And that's a lot of spare change.