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After last night’s fiasco with the water bottle (and subsequent ingestion of massive doses of pain medication), I was thinking maybe I could sleep in today, just a little. I know it’s a work day, but I’d pretty much stretched myself to the limit. I was just starting to get over the most painful part of the arthritis flare-up, and I could have used the extra rest, both physically and emotionally.
But alas, it was not meant to be. The Boss phoned first thing (in fact, a little before first thing) and said, “I’m going to ask you to do something you’re not going to like.” When he says that, he’s usually right. We have a new contract that has to be executed and returned to the state, and when we talked about it yesterday it was all going to be done by mail.
Suddenly, it was deemed necessary to execute this contract today, so I was asked to drive it to Wal-Mart, where I would meet the Boss’s ex-wife and hand off the contract to her. Thankfully, she would take care of the rest, which included driving it halfway across the state to the Boss himself. He asked me to name the time I thought I could be there. Since I hadn’t showered yet, I said, “9:30.” He said he’d let her know.
Five minutes later, as I was starting to shave, I got another phone call. It was Ms. Ex. She hadn’t heard from the Boss and wanted to know if I was on my way. I told her I was planning on being there at 9:30, and she went into a state of apoplexy. She had company coming and had to be back here from her hundred-mile round trip by noon. She had told the Boss that, she said, and he was supposed to call me last night to arrange it. Instead, he called me this morning, didn’t mention her company, and had me name the time.
Well, I wasn’t going to let her miss her meeting, so I agreed to meet her right then and there, without shaving or showering. By the time I got there and back, it was almost the time I was hoping to get up in the first place. But at least I had plenty of time to shower, meet a friend for coffee, and get to the post office on my way home. Then I would be able to get some work done the rest of the day and feel better about the whole ordeal. Or so I thought.
Coffee was wonderful, except that when I opened my wallet to pay, I had barely enough for a cup, and not nearly enough to get through the weekend. So I made an extra stop at the ATM on my way home. And then I made another extra stop at another ATM, because the first ATM was out of cash. By the time I got headed toward the post office, I was stuck in afternoon traffic and very late and totally exhausted and starving.
Fortunately, Suzanne had brought lunch for me while I was gone. Unfortunately, I missed her because I was so late. But John was there, and (bless his heart) he was using his tractor to cut the high grass in my yard. That’s the kind of thing that can turn a disastrous day around. |
