Earthmovers and Sandcastles

Know what? I give up. This day needs to be canned, thrown out on its rump, if only I knew how.

First, I didn’t really sleep well at all last night; my shoulder and knee inexplicably decided to start hurting more and more, which bothered me and kept me from getting any good rest. Then Gabe had a nightmare that brought him into our bed, which meant an end to even the little good sleep I was getting between tosses.

Sam woke up late and on the wrong side of the bed and threw a horrible tantrum about being hustled into the shower before eating his breakfast. While he thumped around and growled, Gabe began wringing his hands about how “I hate it when my family fights!” (Man, I just know he goes off to school and describes to his teachers about how we’re the most dysfunctional family this side of the after-school specials.) Then, while he was in the shower, I discovered a sheet of homework in his backpack that didn’t get remembered last night, so I had to rush him even more.

The homework threw Gabe into a tizzy, as he was convinced that now he’d be late for school and miss a planned field trip. “I’ll have to sit in the office all by myself until everybody gets back!” he wailed. “I want to get out and see my world!” Never mind that the bus wasn’t even going to come for another twenty minutes; he was heading toward a panic attack over it, running around in his coat and gloves as though everything was falling apart.

Eric was low on laundry, which was entirely my fault, I admit, but the added stress of that caused more tension. I especially need to catch up there, since he needs to pack for his trip out of the country in a couple of days. I worked a little on that, which ate into my run this morning – the run that might have ordinarily been my sanity-saving measure. On the other hand, the knee was still grouchy, so perhaps that was for the best.

The physical therapist said I looked pale and drawn; instead of exercises, we focused on pain relief today, and she suggested I take some time to recharge today. Ha.

Got home, pulled into the driveway, and a squirrel stared me down from the side of the neighbor’s house. I should interject that these neighbors are the ones with a great, gaping hole under their eave, which they know about, which they’ve addressed only when the squirrels living in the hole managed to nearly yank one of the boards completely off, and then only by resecuring that board with a smaller one across it. So the squirrels still live there, feasting on the seeds the neighbors put out “for the birds,” and they’ve become quite territorial. This one began chattering and hissing at me before I even opened my car door…and then it spun around and OH MY GRAVY it had one eye that was completely pale and blind-looking and was the CREEPIEST THING EVER. I sat there staring, door shut firmly, until the thing sauntered away on its own.

Then I took my sore shoulder and my drawn face inside, where I did more laundry, found another incomplete homework assignment of Sam’s, and then discovered that I’ve managed to accidentally upset, through careless words, somebody I don’t even really know, and even though I’ve apologized, you know? I just feel like giving up.

I don’t feel like Christmas shopping, baking, any of it. I just want to crawl back into my bed and pretend today never happened.