I should've stayed in bed today...

I knew that when I woke up at about 4:00 convinced it was Saturday morning. You know those moments before true wakefulness when you're able to convince yourself that it's the weekend when in reality it's a Monday or Tuesday. When I have those moments it's usually best that I just go back to bed and stay there for the day.

This morning started at 6:15 when my alarm woke me, this time with the full knowledge that it was a Tuesday and I had to go to work. I slowly got up and showered and dressed, and was out the door on time, about 7:25. I walked out of the house, though, to see my car covered in a thick layer of frost. I unlocked the door and wrenched it open (when there's frost, the seal on my door will freeze solid which requires me to run my key around the full length of the seal to break the ice.

I finally got in and reached behind the driver's seat for my ice scraper (The floor behind the driver's side is more practical than the glove compartment as I don't have to get in the car in order to get at it).

My ice scraper was lying in a frozen pool of blue. Apparently the odd flowery odor in my car since yesterday afternoon was caused by my friend Bridget "accidentally" knocking open a full container of fabric softener onto the floor of my car during our run for lunch yesterday.

I dug out the scraper and rushed back into the house to rinse the Downy off of it and grab a towel to soak up the nauseatingly sweet fabric softener.

Once my car was finally clear of frost (now 7:45...I have to be at work at 8:00 and have a 30 minute commute to go on a good day), I turned on my radio and started to back out.

To be called by my mother who had locked her keys in her RUNNING car while she scraped ice. She needed me to drive across town to my dad's school and pick up his set of keys to her car and then drive back, unlock her car and then proceed to work.

So off I went...Trying unsuccessfully to get through to my father's classroom, hoping he could leave his TA's in the room and just meet me out in the school drive with the keys. I finally just spilled the whole story to a secretary and begged her to send the message down on paper rather than continue trying to get through on the phone.

As I neared the intersection of Western and NW 150th (the closest intersection to the school) I was less that happy to learn that 150th is now closed for a quarter mile west of Western. This meant driving another mile south to Memorial Rd, west another mile to Penn Ave and then another mile back north to 150th...then the half mile east back to the school. Mixed among that additional 3 1/2 miles were 9! stoplights.

I finally managed to get through all of that and head back to the house with the spare key...unlocked my mother's car and sped to work (of course stopping for a 44-oz iced tea- hey, I couldn't deprive myself of it).

I arrived at work after a much shorter than usual commute (rush hour traffic having cleared for the most part) just after 9:00.

That's when I learned we had a training at 10:00 that I hadn't put on my schedule and had scheduled four appointments over...and the day went downhill from there.

The one bright spot was a trip to Target at lunch...where I procured The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Special Edition for a mere $22. Quite the bargain! I've enjoyed the first half of the movie now. I stopped watching to pen this entry and then to watch Judging Amy and 9:00...then I'll watch the second half...saving the commentaries and extras for some quiet Saturday night...

If tomorrow isn't better than today...I may get that vacation I've been wanting. Unfortunately, I'll be spending that vacation in Griffin Memorial! (for you non-locals, Griffin is the big loony bin here in the OKC area.)

Ta