Why was today a bad day? Let's start with the pouring rain that nixed my 530 am run. I don't mind my alarm going off at 520 if I am about to get outside, breathe fresh air and run in the dark with my friends. However, this morning I woke up to my alarm, got all dressed, contacts in to come downstairs and hear the rain pounding my roof. Unable to go back to sleep, I worked out in my living room but was really angry about it. (As in, "fine, I will do more stupid pushups on this stupid rug and get covered in more stupid maroon rug fur because I can't think to check a weather report the night before.") It might be a fault of mine but I always assume the weather the next day will be exactly like the weather the day before. It didn't rain Sunday, so why would it rain Monday? Unfortunately, it doesn't work in New England. Case in point, tomorrow is going to be 72 and the next day we will get 9 inches of snow. No lie. That is the actual weather report here for the week.
After writing that paragraph and rereading the weather prediction, I now want to say one last giant F!! but will not because I am at my limit for the...year.
So, anyway, after getting the kids to the dentist and school, i set off for the grocery. Not the three normal grocery stores within two miles of me, but the cheap one where I have to put a quarter in my cart to make it come with me. I originally thought they made you deposit a quarter so you wouldn't steal the cart. (There is a large segment of the population at this grocery store that looks like it might just run off with a perfectly good cart.) My much less intelligent in every way except any way having to do with common sense or useful knowlege when it comes to life husband corrected me by telling me that I have to dig to the bottom of my purse, among gum wrappers and used mouth guards, for a quarter because the grocery store saves money on cart collectors this way, thus passing the savings on to me, the customer. So, after renting my cart and shoving the gigantic wad of reusable bags into the dirty south of the cart, I head in, slightly perturbed but ready for saving tons of money on not quite top quality apples.
Apples, other second rate produce and organic milk (but 50 cents less per 1/2 gallon organic milk) in hand, I head home to unload. Unloading groceries might not seem like that bad of a job, but for some reason, I hate it. I hate finding spots in our too small refrigerator for all the food that will feed our family 147 meals this week. (That's right: 7 people times three meals a day.) I hate finding half a container of old fashioned oats when I thought we had none and then trying to hide it so my husband won't say, "you know we already had oats, right?"
"Yes, I did, but I am practicing for a contest where you try to shove as many things in one pantry cabinet as possible and oats are what I'm working on this week. Last week, it was rice vinegar (3 bottles and counting) and the week before that, it was barley (2 bags up.) "
Anyway, the groceries do eventually get put away with a little help from the kids. Help, as in them asking if we have any more blueberries.
"Yes, I bought 2 pints."
"I just ate those; did you get more?"
"No, have some goldfish."
"But you only bought one bag and we just finished it while you were lugging in all the oats."
The day went on and on, with a giant mud puddle overflowing with every garment my children previously had on, glued on grass sticking to my feet that was leftover from a diorama on ecosystems, muddy footprints all over the kitchen floor, and monkeying barley in the fish tank. That last one really put me over the edge. I am proud to say I have kept this carnival-won goldfish alive in a $1 goodwill tank on our kitchen counter for four months. If barley is the thing that does him/her in, I'm going to be super upset. When I saw the little grains floating in there, I looked at all possible suspects and said, "who did this?" Of course, no one admitted to it. I was still hoping for a guilty plea when my oldest son said, "why does it matter Mom, you have, like, four bags of it in the pantry."
