What a terrible day

I'm not one to write "day in the life" posts (because my days are boring and I doubt that you'd like to hear about how long it took me to get the dust bunnies out from under my bed while Sherbert simultaneously attacks my hair), but yesterday I just had the crappiest day ever.  I mean, everyone is still alive and healthy, so of course, it could be worse, but it was just one of those days when everything seemed to go wrong.  One of those days when you just feel like you're being received poorly on all fronts.  While trying to drive to track there were three baseball dads sitting there in their cars blocking the entrance, chit chatting.  They waved for me to go and drive around to another entrance, and because this was at the end of my day and the end of my rope with all of humankind... I swear that I would have gotten out of my car and wrestled them out of the car and parked them appropriately myself, had my dirty looks and exaggerated hand signals not worked.  Oddly, I also silently screamed the words, "NO.  YOU MOVE" several times.)

 I started my day like this.  At 6:30 I popped outside to check on my squash and found three snails feasting on its remains.

As if to taunt me, the snails dragged the eggs shells onto a leaf of my jalapeno plant and glued them onto it with belly slime, sending me an unmistakable message.  

I can not bring myself to go outside and check on my vegetables today.  I surrender to the snails.  I gave them a fine fight, but this garden clearly belonged to them first and they have schooled me on the art of clever evasion.  I feel a little bit like Mr. McGreggor and we all know what a fool Peter Rabbit made of him.

It's over for me.  I don't have the heart to kill them and if I don't kill them, they'll kill my veggies.

Isn't there some way to deter the snails?  I have read that planting rosemary can help, but if I surrounded my veggies with rosemary would it have the same effect?



Jay worked 7 pm to 7 am the night before.  I got the girls up, made their breakfast, helped them get ready for school and dropped them off.   I was going to make it to the school in just the nick of time, but I got stuck behind this woman who was having some sort of party in her car and didn't think that things like green lights applied to her.  She was seriously just so absorbed in whatever was going on in her car that I literally sat through two light cycles without her moving.  Finally, I honked.  I NEVER use my horn, so please know that her behavior was totally ridiculous.  Another person would have gone around her, but I was afraid because it would have put me in the opposite lane of traffic and it's just my luck to be hit and in the wrong because of this oblivious driver who was having too good of a time to use common sense and basic driving guidelines.

I got to the school late and had to wait in line to get the kids through the door with their "tardy" slips.

Then, I realized that my contract and family service hour sheet was due that day and that I didn't have it with  me.

I ran out to the train station to grab Jay, brought him home, came in and did a quick kitchen clean, swept my floors and made my beds before running out to do our big grocery shop.  I went to two different stores, came home, unloaded the car and unpacked all of our groceries and put them away.  I fed the dogs,  grabbed a quick shower, got together the paperwork for the school and ran out again.  I went shopping for the girls because tomorrow is field day and Bunny has to wear an orange shirt and Lila has to wear purple.  After I got the shirts, I ran to the school to drop off our paperwork.  Then, I headed to a 1:45 appointment that I had. The guy whose appointment was before mine was running over time, so I didn't actually get into the office until 2:15 and had to leave at 2:30 to get the kids from school.  The appointment wasn't very constructive and I left feeling as though I had just wasted everyone's time.

I grabbed the girls, came home, helped them with homework and realized that Bunny forgot her book report book at school.

We got ready for track and got the school at 4:30 where I found out that because Bunny missed Saturday's meet her track season is over.  This was very bad news.  Saturday is the only meet that Bunny has missed.  On Friday afternoon at around 4 Lila went to bed sick and exhausted.  The next morning at 6 when I got up to get ready for the meet, Bunny didn't feel well and wanted to stay in bed.  After a whole season of running around and early Saturday's I decided to let her sit it out.  I did not know that this decision would mean sitting out the rest of the season.  Because I'm new to track, I didn't know that Saturday was what they call a "qualifying meet" and no one explained to me what a qualifying meet was or that it was super important to be there. I was especially pissed because I had to put the pieces together myself.  No one even said, "hey, you weren't there on Saturday so Bunny can no longer compete."  I derived the importance of the meet from conversation and then asked about it.  When Bunny found out she cried, but her tears quickly turned to anger, which came as a relief to me.  As for me, I'm ready to quit practices all together because this has really rubbed me the wrong way, but I know that's not the right example to set for my children.

At the beginning of the season we paid for Bunny's track sweatshirt with a check from our Philadelphia account because we didn't have a SF checking account yet.  Months have gone by and the check has not got out.  Finally, Jay asked me to just give them cash and ask them to rip up the check.  We really need to close that old account.  So, I went in and tried to pay them.  The coach refused to take my payment because we already paid by check, saying that he didn't want payment twice and looking at me like I was an idiot even though I had just explained myself.  My reaction is this, let's just close the account and if they don't get paid, we tried!  It's their own fault.  Of course, my level headed husband convinced me that we should transfer money back into that account and wait until they cash the check to close it.

Note- this sweatshirt thing is small, but I am generally SO tired of being inconvenienced by other people and having to make concessions based on their failure to act reasonably and responsibly.  The older I get, the bitchier I get and the less willing I am to compromise.  Right or wrong, that's how I feel.

Finally, I had to leave track practice, get Jay, take him back to the train and then run back to get Bunny.

On a bright note, I did receive a note home saying that I won the chaperon lottery and will be allowed on the field trip this Friday.  It's up in the north bay, which is my favorite area of northern California.  I love Concord, but if the commute to the north bay wasn't so terrible, I'd really like to live up there.

When we got home, I made a crappy, quick dinner and called to Sherbert to come in.  Usually Sherbert stays close by and like a dog will come running when he's called.  But last night there was no jingling of his bell as he trotted home.  He's not allowed out after dark.  Our street has speed bumps and people don't' race down it, but I worry that he'd be hit by a car in the dark.  Also, I worry about night critters getting him.  After I began to panic, Sherbert did return home...  I don't' know where he was but he was filthy and scared.  I got my girls bathed and ready for bed and then curled up in bed with The Hunger Games and stayed up till 2 reading and till 4 thinking about how I wish that I could sleep.

I never made it to my yard yesterday,  so it's littered with dog poop, orange blossoms and gutted oranges discarded by the copper squirrels that rule our neighborhood (who I am CERTAIN have started tossing oranges at Groovy James as he pees).

Today I'm grouchy and I am tired and the only thing that I feel like doing is climbing back into bed.  Of course, I will not do this.  I will head into my kitchen to do the breakfast dishes, put a load of laundry on, sweep and go outside to clean up my backyard and plant the daisies my neighbor gave me.

Please let today be a better day.  Please, please, please...