Gwendolyn Anna and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

When I was a kid, I had a book called "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." That book title has occurred to me as I have sludged through multiple crappy circumstances in my life. I certainly felt it this morning.

First, I was so dog tired last night I konked out without doing any of my normal bedtime stuff. Monday nights, that means taking a quick tour through the house for any excess garbage since pick-up day is Tuesday. Missed that, so no doubt the can will be jam packed next week.

Then, I wake up around 1:30 AM literally unable to breathe. Nice of an asthma attack to visit while I am completely exhausted. So I fling myself out of bed, dash blindly to the living room, stubbing my toe on the way, to get my inhaler. I take 2 hits of the inhaler. I'm breathing now, but still coughing up a storm. I take 2 more hits on the inhaler - it still hurt to breathe but that helped quite a bit. Now you should know that the inhaler is a super stimulant. Think 10 cups of coffee. Great. So now I can't breathe, my toe hurts AND I'm wide awake in the middle of the night.

I decide to sit on the couch and read some email until I get tired again. An hour later I was still coughing so I decided to sleep on the couch once I got tired. Three hours later I wake up twisted in some kind of strange knot with back pain. Yipee! I was so tired and cranky that I just straightened myself out and went back to sleep.

About 7AM I hear Tom get up. Damn, time to get up. I drag myself back to bed and sleep for another 20 minutes while I wait for Tom to finish in the bathroom. I convince myself to get up and wander off to get ready. Tom gave me a smooch, asked how I was feeling, and headed off to work. Shortly thereafter I realize that the toilet hasn't been flushed for 15 minutes or so but the water in the tank is still running. I jiggle the handle to no avail. I decide to take the lid off and see what's going on. Bad idea. No sooner did I lift the lid then the little water hose flies off the stack thingy and water starts spraying all over the place. I grab the float but realize I somehow need to fix this as it would not work for me to stand around holding the float up all day. I try to push the hose back on the water spout thingy. It works OK for about 5 seconds and the hose flies off again. I repeat this cycle about 7 times, swearing profusely and getting damn cold as I am now soaked by hose spray. Somehow I manage to wedge the hose between the stack and the tank wall just so and rush to grab a cup so I can add water from the sink and get the float up as fast as possible. Just as the float rises to the right spot to cut off the water, I bump the flusher and away we go again.

Once I got the toilet under control and changed into DRY clothing, I headed out to work. The sun must be extra pretty today, because for no reason there was a far worse than normal traffic jam on I-394. Bah. It took me 25 minutes to go 8 miles to downtown.

Other than than, my day has been really, really, really, really boring. I have a dental check-up this afternoon. I'm guessing they'll find a cavity.

It's just been that kind of day.