First off, I’d like to wish happy birthday to Emmy and Ally! It’s hard to believe that you’re both eleven now! I remember when you were brought home from the hospital, all tiny and squeaky and red. It doesn’t seem that long ago, but I guess it was. Crazy. Hope you both have a great day!

Just about anything would be better than my day, in fact. Today has sucked so much, it’s hard to even remember all the shit that has been going on . . . and there’s still more of it left to come! At any rate, it started last night. I’ve been having some insomnia lately, which is fairly normal, but last night was made worse by the fact that Kitty decided she needed to pester me and Ian all night long. So when I wasn’t waking up due to my normal insomnia, I was waking up thanks to her squawking and climbing all over me. It drove Ian nuts too. No matter how many times we dumped her on the floor, she wouldn’t stay put. The obnoxious lack of a door on the bedroom meant there was no way to shut her out either. When I got up, I saw why she was trying to be so affectionate last night: she’d puked on the couch and was trying to be cute to make up for it. Not a little either, mind you. I think she had to have gone back to her food dish, eaten more, and come back to puke again. I managed to do the best job I could with paper towels and the vacuum, but the couch still smells like cat vomit. I spent so much time messing with it, no shower for me. Then while I was brushing my teeth and going through the usual routine, Rook started texting me for help studying for one of his finals. It’s hard to text and brush your teeth, let me tell you.

So I finally step outside and it’s freezing. Five minutes away from the house I realized I should have grabbed a heavier coat and gloves. Yesterday was so warm that I figured today would be at least vaguely similar. Wrong. The library yesterday had been really warm (there are a lot of problems regulating the heat because the building is so ancient), so I was wearing a T-shirt under my sweatshirt. Whee. At least I got there in one piece without looking much like a popsicle. Not long after getting to the library, I got to play with the collections stuff, which always makes my day. It’s great knowing that I’m having to tell people they owe us money. Being in dire financial straits myself, I totally understand not being able to pay for lost books and all that, but it’s part of my job, so I’ve got to do it. Fun. Not long after that I got told by our bookkeeper that my mandatory retirement hasn’t been taken out of my checks since August. Now on my next paycheck, I get to have $200 deducted all at once. Dippy.

That put my horrible, rotten mood into a spiraling downward plummet into sheer frustration and annoyance. I was only too happy to take on the task of weeding books from the large print fiction section because that would mean not dealing with anyone for a while, and I didn’t want to bite anyone’s heads off in my pissiness. I was still working on going through the list of large print fiction when the pizzas arrived for the Christmas party for the staff. The staff lounge is tiny at best, and there was no way I was going to be able to fit in there with everyone else on break, so I waited for my lunch break until the room cleared out. Unfortunately, once I had gotten some pizza and sat down, I had to keep getting up over and over again to help out on the computers because I’m the default computer geek when our IT person’s out. In getting up over and over again in such a cramped space, I got pizza sauce all over my shirt. I had Ian bring me another one despite the fact that he really hasn’t slept at all thanks to the aforementioned cat. I got back out on the floor to work on weeding books, and people kept talking about the flurries outside. Great. That’s all I needed: walking home in the snow. I hate the cold enough as it is; snow just sucks even more.

The only nice thing that has happened today was that Tommy happened to be past as I walked home, so he gave me a lift the last two blocks. It’s always nice seeing Tommy, so that was one good thing today in amongst the pile of crap that has been shat on me since early, early this morning. I’m home now and have gotten a chance to take a shower, but I’m just going to be leaving again in an hour for the crochet club at the library. All I really want to do is curl up in bed with Ian (who’s finally sleeping) and forget that this day ever happened.

Even more frustrating than all of the above and the generally arthritic aches from the weather and the bruises on my knees from running into the table in the lounge every time I had to jump up to help patrons is the fact that by themselves, all of these things are minor (with the exception of having $200 disappear from my paycheck). If each one had happened one at a time on successive days, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed. But no. Today has been heaped up with annoyance after annoyance after problem after frustration. It’s irritating enough that it’s cold and December and I have to put up with people wishing me “Merry Christmas” all day long. Likewise frustrating is knowing that there’s nothing I can do about any of it, and I’m just going to have to wait out the rest of the obnoxious day. Maybe today’s annoyances will be enough to exhaust me so much that I’ll actually sleep through the night tonight. I doubt it, but it’s a thought. For now, I’m going to read something pointless, maybe crochet some, and wait for the next disaster to strike. Watch: lightning will hit the house or something.