Monday, Monday: A Day In The Life of Yours Truly

I woke up this morning, peeked out from behind my Miss Scarlett sleep mask, saw that the sun had risen, my spouse had stepped in the shower and thus contemplated my options: stay in bed or face the day. Wishing really really hard it was Saturday or even Sunday, then realizing wishing doesn't always make it so, I realized it was time to face the day.

I may have mentioned this before, but if not, let me then say loudly and clearly: I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON. Even as a little child, even if it was my birthday, even if it was the last day of school, I would sit at the breakfast table in the morning, yawning and occasionally grumbling something semi-coherent for my family to hear. My poor mother. She was a morning person and the rest of us, dad included, were not. And let me add that I married a morning person. So while he is (usually) all sunny smiles, ready to face the day, I am stumbling around, eyes half open, trying not to hurt myself.

This morning was a pretty typical Monday for me, which means I need to listen to my intuition and ban Monday mornings, from here on out. That means I simply won't do them any longer. I'll go to bed Sunday evening and wake up Tuesday. Around noon.

For starters, Mr. Nina is having a tooth issue. Finding a dentist who doesn't want to make a gazillion appointments plus charge an arm and a leg and run all sorts of ridiculous tests all for a simple filling is proving to be a pain in the ass. And the hours these folks carry is unbelievable. Tuesday through Thursday until 3pm. Monday, Wednesday and Friday from noon to 5pm. Honest to god.

Where's the dentist who will work on you after 10pm for people like me??? I just pray for continued good dental health because god forbid I have to face these folks before noon.

Anyway, Mr. Nina then heads off to work only to return because he had forgotten the key, which we both tried looking for and being I am still waking up, well, let's just say I wasn't much help. Plus my mind tends to wander, so that meant I may not have found the key but I did find my tweezers!

So I eat some cereal and pull out my laptop and get to work. 30 minutes or so later, it crashes. Fuck. That means I have to take a trip up to the U to get another one, which means trying to find free parking. Being I have to pay for parking on my own when I visit, and being the parking is ridiculously expensive, I try and find a meter that already has money in it. Yeah, I can be that cheap at times.

So I phone Mr. Nina, ask when he'll be home for lunch, which is when I will have access to the car. Well, there's been a little mini-crisis at work (of course there has!) and he will be late coming home.

Grrr...

So I wait until he arrives home, haul my dead laptop up to my employer's offices, actually get lucky finding a parking spot--free-- right away, and exchange it for a newer version. I head home, ask Mr. Nina if he's having any further luck finding a dentist. He just grunts. I take the hint and get back to work I had started hours previously. I worked straight through the rest of the afternoon. The day was perfect--not too warm, bright sunshine, a nice breeze. I decided to take a bike ride to my secret spot to pick some blackberries. Well, I am assuming it's a secret spot given for the past several years I've gone there to pick, I have never seen anyone else and there is always a huge supply of berries.

So, I'm picking away, kind of wishing I had waited to go with Mr. Nina, who towers over 6 feet and has what I (affectionately) call "monkey arms". I'm not short, but I'm certainly not tall, so I had to pass on a lot of good clusters.

As I'm picking away, I had one run-in with a spider and 3 very close calls, for a total of 4 encounters. Pick, pick, pick, what's that sticky stuff on me oh my god SPIDERRRRRRRRRRR WEBBBBBBBBBBBB. It took me those 4 times to pay attention. As I mentioned previously, my mind tends to wander.

When I had picked enough, I decided to head back home. As I climbed onto my bike, I felt something in my eye. Not thinking, AGAIN, I rubbed my eye with my pointer finger, also one of my picking fingers. As I looked down at my finger, I saw the berry stains. Again, NOT THINKING, I rub my hand on my shorts then return to trying to remove whatever it was that was obviously caught in my eye. Well, I was making no progress and I had no mirror on me, so I decided to head home.

On my ride home I'm sure I looked like a drunk. First I was riding most of the way into the sun, hurting my stinging eye even more. Plus, whatever it was that was in my eye was hurting me so much at times, I kept trying to remove the object with my right pointer finger as I rode. This doesn't include holding the bag of berries with my left hand (I have no basket on my bike). In short, I was weaving all over the place.

I made it home, went inside the bathroom, tossed off my helmet and sunglasses and looked in the mirror. My eye was very red. The nice shade of purple streaks from the blackberry juice added a nice artistic expression.

Upon close inspection, I found the source of my irritation: a small piece of a blackberry bush.

So I remove the object, clean up and head into the kitchen to put my berries into the freezer. As I pick up my plastic freezer bag, a stream of berry juice pours out of the bottom. Instinctively, I put my hand underneath it to catch the juice, then toss the whole thing into the sink. And once again, with flair, absent-mindedly, I wipe my hands on my legs.

Can one person really be this stupid???

Oh well. The berries are in a new bag, in the freezer. I have a really pretty blackberry stain/design on my legs. It's kind of cool actually--a swirly pattern. And as for that hole in the bag, I haven't a clue when or how it got there. I'm too afraid to find out. Thank god the color blends in with our decor.