Inside Out

I'm feeling a little inside out today.

Yesterday I found out that the apartment I felt sure was destined to answer a lot of personal needs had been rented to another. Big disappointment and no small amount of anger.

This morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5:45am in order to leave my apartment by 7am to get to my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon scheduled for 8am. It takes about 40 minutes to get from here to there, but because of the roads involved and the time of day, I had to leave plenty of time for New Jersey error. I didn't sleep well either because I was anxious about sleeping through my alarm - exacerbated no doubt by the two medicinal Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade that I had with my leftovers dinner - and woke myself up at various times throughout the night to check my clock. It got so bad, I even dreamt that the power had gone out and all my clocks were showing different times, except for my alarm clock, which is battery powered.

Got up, got washed and dressed, and was on my way by the astonishing time of 6:48am. No traffic foibles entrapped me beyond navigating through the murky fog inhabiting my brain. I even had enough time for a detour to the Bagels 'R Us in Springfield that has delicious asiago cheese bagels, or at least had delicious asiago cheese bagels, because apparently they don't make them anymore. Still, a salt bagel did not go amiss.

After all this, I was told, upon arrival at the orthopedic office, that I wasn't even on the appointment schedule for the day. I have an itchy feeling that they only checked on the erroneous name I suggested because I couldn't remember the specialist's name, but I did ask them to check all three partners' schedule and I had to go with what they were telling me. So I wound up rescheduling that for next week and get to go another 7 days without the MRI results on my knee. Yippee.

All that effort (on my part) and inefficiency (on theirs) brought me to work at 8:30 this morning when the lights were still off and the toilet seats were still raised. I sat at my desk in an early morning coma listening to the office wake up around me. With our visual aids now released and our client's sales meeting underway, the frenetic intensity and time commitment of my job has eased for the moment, making the days less annoying and harder to muddle through at the same time.

Plus it's raining and humid with it and the best thing to do on a day like this is stay in bed with the a/c cranked in the company of kitties. Then there was the par for the course "where did you put my _______" call from my mother followed by my conditioned response "exactly where you told me." Her improving health is a blessing. Really it is.

Add to all that the two calls made this morning to the social worker at my mother's rehab facility, on top of the e-mail I sent her yesterday, to get the answer for one silly Medicaid question. I have yet to hear back from her. I was waiting at my desk for the return call for more than an hour after an associate said "she'll call you right back" (uh huh), before finally giving up and heading to the ladies room. Where I discovered that more than just my morning was inverted.

My panties were inside out too.

Sigh. I guess there's not much you can do with a day like this except lather, rinse, repeat.

Too bad I skipped the conditioner this morning.