Today Was One of Those Days

It all started when I was reading the paper this morning. There was a cutesie little feature on "quotes from dads" submitted by readers.

SHIT, I thought, not again*.

I'd forgotten Father's Day. Or so I thought for about 20 minutes until I frantically went on Amazon.com to pick out a present for overnight shipment, debating whether to cook up an excuse or just be straight and admit I'd forgotten, and saw a page full of grills and gadgets and geeky stuff perfect for Dad.

It's next Sunday. Sigh of relief. My present's already in the mail.

Then I got ready for a nice, productive day all by myself here at Casa Cali. Rico and my mom had an all-day meeting, so I was looking forward to organizing my office, making some jewelry, doing laundry and catching up on emails. We only have one car, so I was ready to spend the whole day at home.

It was too good to be true, though. I soon discovered I'd spaced a workout session with my trainer at 4pm - all the way in Oakland. And I had no car.

Thankfully my mom lives about a 30-minute walk from our house. I managed to email her in the middle of their meeting and get permission to use her car. I'd have to go on an unexpected walk, but I thought I'd solved my logistical problem...until I remembered that I HAD NO DRIVER'S LICENSE. It had stayed in Rico's wallet after our jaunt to the local bar yesterday to watch the World Cup game.

Shit. Again.

Still, I thought I'd go ahead and risk it. I walked to my mom's house, got her spare key, found her car in the building's garage, and promptly hit another obstacle. I couldn't figure out how to get the damn garage gate open from the inside without the clicker. My mom had said there was a box where you could use the key to open the door, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

I went in search of the maintenance man to help me, but he was nowhere to be found. I finally had to ask some random couple walking their dog if they could show me how to open the garage door from the inside. I tried to put on my most innocent, "I'm not trying to steal anything or break in" face possible.

The stupid key box turned out to be about the size of a walnut and was hidden all the way in the darkest corner of the parking garage. I never would have found it without that neighbor.

So then, after all the car and garage drama, I was finally with vehicle and on my way to the studio in Oakland to work out, praying for no cops along the way.

Upon arrival, my trainer - who is never, ever, ever late - wasn't there. Turns out she didn't have me in her schedule. I managed to work out with another trainer who was free at that time, but still, I felt so crazy.

I NEVER have days like this, where everything seemingly goes wrong, or at least deviates significantly from the plan. Sometimes I have a little scheduling hiccup, or forget about a doctor's appointment...but a whole sequence of stuff is rare. It sort of knocked me off kilter, so I'm doing what any sane girl would do at the end of a day like this:

BATH + WINE + TRASH TV.


* Last year I forgot my Dad's birthday, and couldn't believe I'd make a similar mistake two years in a row.