The Day That Keeps On Giving

I try to keep this space positive. I try to focus on the blessings in life and not dwell on the bad stuff. I try, at the end of every day, to look back and see the good in it.

Today, that will not happen. Today was a no good, very bad day. One of those days that you end up in the fetal position, waving a white flag. Nothing earth shattering, just one of those days that was full to the brim of things that broke the proverbial camel's back.

I guess the beginning of this day was actually the end of yesterday. I frequently battle with insomnia and last night was no exception. I finally decided, after tossing and turning for hours, to lay on the couch. As I snuggled in and surfed Hulu Plus for a guilty pleasure show one of the dogs had a coughing/vomiting fit. Lovely. Ever clean up dog vomit at 3am? It is one of those life experiences I do not recommend. Anyway, four episodes of America's Next Top Model and a Tylenol-Benadryl cocktail later, I got a whopping 4 hours of very interrupted sleep.

Morning brought a tantrum thrown about 10 minutes after I woke up. According to my three year old I clearly was not being very nice and wouldn't allow her to jump on the couch right next to a cranky, tired me holding a full, very hot cup of coffee. Admittedly my patience level is low before noon and add to that a horrible night's sleep. Well, that equated to a dual melt-down. I am certain I will be receiving a parenting award for my performance.

Next came the don't-wash-my-hair meltdown. Followed promptly by the lost-sense-of-humor so I-am-going-to-plug-my-ears-and-not-listen-to-anyone tantrum. This turned into several screeching episodes and one yelling across the house incident. At this point I was so worn out that I couldn't really do much. I kept repeating that she needed to be nicer and was hurting my feelings. Inside I wanted to be the one to throw myself on the ground and scream until someone sent me to my room to bed. I would have done anything for a time out.

By 2:30pm we were all showered and dressed and strapped down buckled into the car. We were heading off to a friend's birthday party. I was looking forward to being able to talk in full sentences with another adult while my child ran wild with a pack of hyped up, sugar high, kids. In other words, her people. Less than 1/10 of a mile from our house, our car made a horrific sound and the brakes decided that stopping was optional.

Shit.

Did I mention we just put $300 into this money sucker? On the brakes? Awesome.

We turned around and parked the car. I took the deepest breath I could, prayed she'd understand, and told our daughter that the birthday party wasn't going to happen. It was like putting a flame to a fuse and hoping nothing would blow up. Now, I was guaranteed some sort of mom-of-the-year award. Luckily my husband donned the Super Parent cape and walked her to the park. I donned my Super Lazy sweat pants and caught up on some work.

This is the part where I would usually say something along the lines of, "At least we have each other" or "I wouldn't give up a single moment of even the most stressful of days." Both statements are true-ish. But tonight I am not going to try to find the pot of gold at the end of a crappy-day rainbow. Instead, I am going to allow myself to have had a shitty day. I am going to allow myself to feel annoyed. Otherwise, I would not be being honest. Not with you and most definitely not with myself. So, tonight when I go to bed I will be thankful that today is over.

And I will be thankful for Tylenol-Benadryl cocktails.