Bad Day

How do you deal with bad days? Just keep on keepin' on, or mope like Oscar the Grouch?

Today was a bad day for me. Granted, not bad in the grand scheme of things, but still not ideal.

I'll break my day down into the big issues, so that I can fully whine about my problems in a really non-productive manner.

Issue #1: No sleep. I know, I know, it's to be expected. It'll get worse when Tony comes. And I realize that. But what contributes to it isn't the general end-of-the-pregnancy uncomfortableness (although that is no fun). No, what causes it is this: we're out in the country and there are no fences in any one's yards, right? We're also in the South so our houses are built above ground to let air circulate under to keep it cool in the summer. Well, a lady down the road from us "rescues" animals. I.e. she feeds them, but doesn't take them in, find them homes, bring them to the shelter, gets them their shots, takes them to the vet, etc. So when it's near freezing, guess who's house they decide to camp out under? That's right. There are a bunch of cats and dogs under my house making horrible noise (crying, meowing, barking, fighting, one sounds like it's in heat) all night long. But I'm in a hard place, because this neighbor mowed our yard for us when I was very sick in early pregnancy, so I don't want to be mean. And I love animals, but I can't take care of every stray animal in the area that this woman decides to "adopt." So the barnyard under my house keeps me up all.stinking.night.long. Audrey and my husband, however, sleep right through it.

Issue#2: The noises cause me to have crazy dreams - when I can sleep. Like last night, I had a dream that my husband heard someone break into our house. We looked around, but didn't see anyone so assumed all was okay. I had my husband sit on the couch and I brought him a cup of water. I went to the bathroom to find the shower curtain disheveled. When I went to put it in, someone grabbed my hands and pushed back at me making this awful sound - which I'm pretty sure was one of those darn cats. Scared the mess out of me and I didn't sleep for the rest of the night.

Issue #3: My OB's office is incompetent. Not my OB. I love her. She's actually very supportive of natural birth, no interventions, and even my decision to home school Audrey. Well, today as I'm leaving, I had to deal with one of the ladies in her office. I do not like this lady at all. She is not good with people. She refuses to give me morning appointments, causing me to go in with a very hungry and tired Audrey at lunch/nap time and getting frustrated when my kid gets up set. Well, no duh, woman. You won't give me an appointment when it's not nap time. I never have this issue with anyone else there. Sometimes she'll schedule my appointment without asking me, hand me my reminder card, and walk away so I can't complain or ask for another time. Well, today she took the top of the cake. She informed me that instead of waiting until after the birth, adding up all of the costs and making a payment plan for the cost that I had to pay $3500 within three weeks! And that I was actually supposed to have paid this BEFORE I was 28 weeks. I'm 34 weeks and JUST found this out. I have to pay for the doctor's delivery costs, whether or not she's the one there to deliver, BEFORE I even step foot into the hospital, BEFORE the hospital even gets paid, and it may not even apply to my deductible. I am furious. And, of course, I was there at lunch time with a squirmy toddler climbing on a huge belly and she sprung this on me... and handed me paper work dated LAST YEAR when she was actually supposed to tell me about it and asked me to pay it TODAY. I'm sorry, you screw up and want me to just give you $3500 RIGHT NOW? Are you nuts, woman? Good thing my husband is a lawyer. They closed right after I left, so he's going to call Monday and give them a good talking to. According to their "contract" that I was forced to sign today, I was supposed to be given this information months ago, and the paper work is dated months ago. So they breached their own contract there and it's borderline fraud with the post dating. For them to demand the payment on such a short notice without any mention beforehand is not in agreement with what they have stated, so they've breached it themselves and they have to give us the extra time to make the payments.

Issue #4: My daughter WILL NOT NAP today. Ugh. I'm exhausted, mad, frustrated, and she won't nap. Typically, I'm very even tempered and calm and if she won't nap, I just let her calmly play to have some down time. But I could have REALLY used a nap today. Oh well.

Issue #5: A client of my husband's is asking him for money. He's doing a pro bono case for a woman who needed help because she felt she had been wrongly fired. Well, now she's having issues with her landlord and wants him to do this case as well - again for no money. He specializes in maritime and insurance, so this is way out of his field of specialty. He politely told her he could not take the case (especially since he wouldn't get paid at all for any of the work) and referred her to other attorneys in the area. Well, one attorney will take her case, but requires a retainer. She's now wanting my husband to give her $2000 for the retainer and to pay any other attorney's fees as a result because she can't pay. Of course he told her no, and it's not something that is typically done. But it's still frustrating that she keeps pestering and asking.

Oh well. In good news, I'm very blessed. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter (who is wearing her cranky pants today), and a healthy son. And I plan on making apple pie floats by the truck load and drinking them all night long - once my husband comes home so I can hide in my office and not have to share.

Apple Pie Floats:

Vanilla ice cream (or the non-dairy equivalent)
Apple cider (not apple juice)
Ginger Ale (organic or not, your choice)

I prefer a 60/40 cider to ale ratio, my husband likes 50/50. Oh yeah, I'm the kind of person who plans on moping about my bad day.