It was such a Monday. Epic, really. You know how sometimes Jupiter aligns with Mars and peace guides the planets? Well the opposite happened this Monday. Jupiter apparently cut Mars off and there was only bickering among the planets.
That might be a little dramatic, but I'm Italian, so...
I had great plans for dinner. I really did. I'd had a stressful day and planned on cooking to make it better. But first, I had to leave from work a little early, pick up John and his baritone, pick up another teenager and her flag for marching band guard, and deliver them to the high school. We also took along two mosquitoes for part of the ride. We lost them somewhere along the way. I think I did manage to smash one, but the other one must have escaped somehow. It must have known what was coming. I delivered my charges and their equipment without issues. Then I headed back down toward Southport so I could go to WalMart. I don't usually like to grocery shop at WalMart, but I needed a plain white t-shirt for the boy, so I figured I might as well go to just one store. I'm not being snobby about not wanting to buy groceries there. I am just short and the signs saying what is in each aisle are really high in the air at WalMart (and no, I am not linking to WalMart from this blog - if you can't find that on your own, you probably shouldn't even be on the internet).
Unfortunately, there was a jack-knifed trailer across the road miles away from WalMart. Miles away from anything actually. The only way to "get around" it would have been about a 45-minute drive. Of course, I waited in traffic for more than an hour. Still not sure I shouldn't have bailed. But no, I stayed the course. Finally we could go. Well, sort of. We had to get around the disabled pickup that was also dead in our lane. I really felt for that guy. One time our van died on the way back to Penn State the first day the PA Turnpike was open to traffic after a major snowstorm. Been there done that. No one wants to be that guy. Traffic was still slow, but I finally did make it to the store.
I did pretty well at the store, even considering the tourists are here and the shelves needed attention. Then I was off to get gas across the street. The short version of my time there is I very politely explained to the little girl in the Mustang that she was not actually going to cut me off and take my turn at the pump. I then ignored the guy who thought I should pull out into traffic and get crushed instead of waiting for a clear spot (maybe he was friends of Mustang girl?).
At this point, it was 7:10. I was going to have no interest in cooking dinner, or in waiting for food to be prepared. Enter KFC 8-piece box. We don't really get fast food very often, but tonight it was just the thing. Naturally, when I pulled up to the order box, it beeped a really loud high-pitched noise at me. When it stopped, I was able to give my order. When I got to the window, the employee asked me how I was doing. I replied with the expected "fine." Then I told her that actually, I had a pretty crappy day. She said she had too. I told her I was sorry to hear that and pointed out that at least I hadn't taken out my bad day on her, and she agreed that I had not. We ended with her passing me the food and each of us wishing the other a "great night" and resolving to make it so.
I always try to find the positive, even if some days it's harder to do that. Tonight it was dinner for the family that Jeffrey or I didn't have to cook, I made it home safely, and I made someone smile. Not too bad, I guess.
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