... and all by 10 am

I promised myself I would never do this, but here I am, blogging about my day. As I write, gasoline fumes faintly waft to my consciousness, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I haven't been sleeping all that great because my husband is out of town, and I never sleep well when he's not home. So, I woke up several times during the night, and was sure to set my alarm because I had to be be at a 9am audiologist appointment the next town over in the morning. (Of course, when the alarm went off I was sleeping soundly. Why IS that?) I was a little late leaving the house, so I rushed (risking a ticket) on the interstate to be sure I was on time. I arrived exactly 2 minutes before 9, so I was happy. I signed in, wrote down my appointment time and that I was in to see the audiologist. Then I sat and waited.

While I waited a little family was across the room - dad actually holding a baby doll up to his chest, mom and little girl playing child's video game. With sound. Loud sound. "Can you say HORSE?" "Can you say GLACIER?" Funky video game music. Loud funky video game music. I looked over there once, not believing that they could all be so oblivious as to the commotion they were creating in that little waiting room. (I was thinking how considerate my daughter always is with her kids' games: "turn it down, sweetheart"). Three other people on the other side of the room were engrossed in conversation - in Spanish - and seemed unaware that this beeping and booping and sugary-sweet sounding woman's voice was demanding that that 3 year old repeat vocabulary words. All the while the Weather Channel was showcasing the awful weather that seems to be sweeping the country at the moment. About this time the sick woman comes in, coughing, hacking and sneezing. Oh, dear Lord, please do NOT let me catch any of her icky germs two weeks before Christmas...

So about the time I was almost ready to say sometime about waiting 15 minutes for an appointment not even to see a doctor, the receptionist called me over and informed me that the regular audiologist had had a baby and wouldn't be there. (I almost asked her, "what, in the last 15 minutes?" but held my peace). I told her I was aware of that. She said there was another audiologist I was going to see. Yes, I was aware of that. (Keeping my voice even, even forcing a little smile). She went through a barrage of other unrelated news items, and finally casually mentioned that she had put me on the former audiologist's "screen" and finally realized I wasn't there to see her, but the other guy. She talked to the audiologist who was actually there, and informed me that he had already called another patient in, and I would have to wait a little longer. "How much longer?" "Oh, no more than 10-15 minutes." Okay, this is a small town, stuff happens, no problem. "I have a short errand I need to run, and I'll be back in 15 minutes." "Okay, see you then."

So, off I go, run my errand, and I'm back in exactly 15 minutes. I go in (coughing, hacking, obviously sick woman still miserably sitting there) and announce "I'm back." Receptionist behind the glass motions for me to "come 'eer, honey" so I do. "Well, as soon as you left, he got with another patient, so you'll have to wait a little bit." "How long this time?" "I'll go ask him." (Comes back). "Well, it's going to be another 20 minutes or so..." "Oh, no. I made this appointment early so I could get in and get out." "Well, I'm sorry. I put you on the wrong screen." "I can't wait another 20 minutes." (Rephrase: I'm not GOING to sit for 20 minutes breathing the sick woman's germs waiting to get on the "correct" screen.) "Honey, can you come back in tomorrow?" "No I can't." "Do you want to reschedule?" (I'll reschedule when it snows in the Sahara). "I'll call." I have no intention of calling. I have every intention of looking for another ENT/audiologist.

So, I go to Kroger to use up some Kroger gas certificates because I'm getting low on gas. I present the certificates only to be informed that they have expired. "Where does it say that?" "Right here." "Oh." Rats. So, off I go.

I decide to stop in at the local QT off the interstate exit not too far from my house, and go buy a donut. So I go in, buy the donut, and announce I'm not going to feel guilty for buying it 'cuz I've already had a bad day. The nice guy and girl behind the counter say, "why, what happened?" I actually tell them, and they are so sympathetic it makes me feel better and decide to buy gas there even though they are about 2 cents higher per gallon than most places.

I start filling up my car, put the nozzle on "automatic" so it fills up without me holding it, and go back to my car (door open) to put my card away while I wait for it to fill. I watch the numbers roll by, and listen to the rain pouring off the awning covering me while I wait for the car to fill. The numbers roll by, the gallons getting filled go higher and higher, and suddenly I realize that my car doesn't hold as much as it says on the pump. I get out to see a waterfall of gasoline gushing out of my gas tank, down my car, and making a river underneath my feet. I groaned as I saw dollars - many of them - just float on by. I squished over and finally got the nozzle turned off, and the fumes about knocked me over. This has never happened to me before.

So, I go inside and tell them what happened. They get the manager, and he starts writing down information, and his pen explodes. He looks at me and says, "I have no idea what happened!" I told him it was me, that I'm just a disaster magnet today, so be careful. He calls HIS manager, and they are nice and give me a refund for the amount over what the amount should have been. Personally, I think he wanted me out of there before anything else happened. I look at the clock and it's only 10:15...

So, I'm trying to figure out if there are any object lessons from all this. The main thing is that I just can't take myself too seriously sometimes... Stuff happens, and maybe the best thing to do is buy a donut, come home and blog about it. And then maybe just go back to bed?