Not My Day

I had a more-than-interesting experience last night.

I seem to be unnaturally tired lately. My body and my mind. In fact, I wonder sometimes if it's not my mind that's causing my body to be so tired. After all, it shouldn't be - I keep pumping vitamins, minerals, extracts, protein, and God knows what else into it. I think I just need some quality quiet time.

Anyway, when I got home from work yesterday I unloaded some more clothes from the dryer, loaded some more clothes into it, and loaded yet more clothes into the now-empty washer. How can one person have so much laundry? I must be some sort of sartorial miracle.

I folded the first-mentioned load, which was sheets and towels and pillowcases, and afterwards I was just drained in the way that only trying to fold a fitted sheet can drain a person. And so I thought, man, if I could just lie down and rest for an hour or so, maybe I'd feel rejuvinated enough to continue being an unmarried housewife. And so I went, in my clothes and shoes, and laid down on the top of my comfy bed.

And slept. Slept what might be termed a lumbering sleep.

I woke with a start. There was faint light coming through the blinds, and I looked over at the clock. It was 6:40. Wow. I still had a while to go before Alarm Time, but I got up anyway. I headed to the cabinet for a coffee filter, then went to the refrigerator to get the beginnings of an Orange Crapius drink.

I looked into the dennette, and noticed the light was on. "Damn. I went to bed with the lights still on," I thought. Then I thought some more. "I went to bed with my clothes on! Hell - I don't even remember going to bed!"

It was only then I realized it wasn't 6:40 Wednesday morning. It was 6:40 Tuesday night. I'd slept about 15 minutes.

That was one of the oddest feelings I think I've ever had.

But at least it afforded me another 13 or so hours before I had to get up for real and go to work.

Today is only Wednesday, but I had to take my normal bi-weekly Thursday afternoon off today because of work conflicts. I don't like doing this, because I start thinking Wednesday is Thursday, and then I get really grumpy when I realize, oh, upwards of 30 times, that Thursday is not Friday. I guess that's normal for a person who wakes up after 15 minutes' sleep and thinks it's time to go to work.

Anyway, I left work at around 1:30 with only one task at hand. To get Podmobile2 his first servicing. So to speak. So off I went straight from work, and after standing in line about 10 minutes waiting for someone to speak to me, I found out that they didn't have an oil filter (or an ull filter to me) for a 2006 Forester. They told me I could go buy an oil (ull) filter at an auto parts store, bring it back, and they could get right to the servicing.

So I went to Advance. Well, I went to what I thought was Advance, and found an empty building. Then I started driving around and found Advance had picked up one night when I wasn't looking and moved somewhere else. I went inside and asked for my filter. They didn't have one. But they said to try NAPA.

I went to NAPA, which was, oddly, right where it was the last time I saw it, and went inside to ask them. They didn't have one either. So it was left to me to go to the dealership and buy an exorbitantly priced oil (ull) filter to take somewhere else to have put on my car. And I didn't do it.

Why didn't I do it? I don't know. I guess to paraphrase Alan F in "Catch-22," I didn't wanna. Who cares if my new car is 1000 miles over its servicing time and I'll be driving more miles this weekend than my brain can count. I just flat didn't wanna.

And since my afternoon was pretty much shot by that time anyway, I decided to take a trip to the hell that is Wal-Mart. I needed some light bulbs. I needed some light bulbs real bad. In fact, had it not been light when I woke up last night, I'd have been stumbling around my kitchen in my clothes and shoes, because of the three bulbs in my kitchen light fixture, none is of a working order.

So I made my way to Low Price Mecca, hitting every yellow light in town, driving behind every 90-year old slow driver B'field has to offer. I got inside and began to shop.

I bought a few things, some hair clips, a new mascara, some more protein bars (my, I'm quite the hoarder these days), some Crystal Light, and in a stunning moment of fortune, I found a personal cassette player. Apparently Wal-Mart understands the out-of-date amongst us. There was no way I could pass it up either, seeing as how it was a paltry $5.00. $5.00! Never mind that when I got it home it really is a $5.00 cassette player, it doesn't even have a rewind button, but seeing as how I was only needing it to listen to a book on tape, I don't guess I needed something fit for the London Philharmonic. Unless of course my book was being read by twins, simultaneously, but it's not, so I'm fine on that count.

$90.14 later and I was walking back out to my car. (How does one spend $90.14 and only have enough items to fill up the childseat portion of one's buggy, anyway?) I loaded everything in and started home, realizing that I hadn't eaten today (so much for the filling up my body with all those vitamins, I guess I need food as well).

I got inside, laid down my bags, and flipped on the kitchen light. Shit. I forgot light bulbs.

For $90.14 there really should have been light bulbs in there somewhere. But there weren't. So I rummaged around the house and found one in a seldom-used lamp and stole it away for the kitchen.

Let there be light. A little, anyway.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* I watched a movie today with subtitles. Subtitles are fine under most circumstances, unless they're white. This movie had yellow subtitles. It was bliss.