Domestic Geek

God, this day totally SUCKED!

First, I didn't sleep well because I have a tooth that's aching bad and really needs to come out. I think the cough drops I've been sucking lately because of a cough I've developed set the tooth off. Sadly, I have no money to get the tooth out. I'm starting to wish I hadn't gone on vacation right now. I've gotten myself into a bad financial hole.

Anyway, today I went to work, stopped to look in a scrapbook store, called Marcus to see if he wanted to have lunch (he already was eating), I was on my way home and my battery light came on, I had no power steering and I lost all the instruments on my panel (speedometer, turn signal, tachometer). I tried to make it back to the store to do tomorrow's dough, but I didn't make it. Marcus came to save me, we discovered I had lost a belt and was ready to lose another. We went to get new belts to get me home, but it turns out that my engine pully actually broke. Nice, huh? So, had to get towed to the shop. My insurance only covers a 15-mile tow and the mechanic was 17 miles away. Marcus had to pick up the extra $6. When I got to the shop, my mechanic was out sick today and I had to deal with his Russian shop guys that don't speak English. Yay. Of course, being broke, I have no idea how I'm going to pay the mechanic when he does get my car fixed.

Dad picked me up from the mechanic and bought me lunch. I borrowed his car to go back to work to do tomorrow's dough. There wasn't enough flour to finish, so I get to go back in the morning. Booooooo. I didn't get home until 6:30 pm. I was gone for 14 hours straight. So much for getting anything else done today.

So, my tooth hurts, I've been sniffling and coughing all day, I'm out of NyQuil, I didn't get a nap this afternoon (so I'm grumpy), and I don't get to sleep in tomorrow like I hoped. Oh, well. I'm going to watch the Apprentice and go to bed.

I had to run to my bank yesterday, so I stopped in to browse around at Archiver's and saw something that I MUST HAVE for my craft room: a Build-A-Bear Scrapbooker Bear! I didn't dare look for a price, but it cost $45 on the Build-A-Bear web site.

I should've known. I actually remembered to say aloud Rabbit Rabbit today (at 12:00:10 AM, freaking out Marcus as he was drifting off to sleep, mind you, but I said it!) and no luck. Booooo rabbit.

I dragged my warm, cozy body out of bed at 4:30, cleared the 6-8 inches of frozen snow off my car (after realizing I no longer have a snow brush and had to snag the one from Marcus' truck), and drove all the way across town to work through several dark intersections.

Something seemed amiss as I pulled up in front of the building. The outside looked wrong and yet every light inside the store was on. Hmm, weird. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the recessed lighting along the sidewalk wasn't on. That's why it seemed darker than normal. I go in and hear the beep of a the computer's battery backup and find a note from the manager--power outage last night (could've called my cell and left a message, but no). Well, that explains all the lights being on. Of course, the circuit that the computer system and the dough mixer are on is still out. Damn it--I can't do any work.

So, I wait. And wait. And wait.

The manager arrives and is pissed that only half of the power is back on. He leaves and then comes back in with an extention cord to run the computer from another plug so he can do the work he couldn't finish last night. An extension cord wouldn't help me because dough mixer is 220V. I finally decide to prep a bunch of stuff that isn't my responsibility, do the dishes they couldn't do because of the dark, etc. He thinks everything is hunky dory because each oven is on a different circuit and they can still do the school orders. Big surprise as he finds that the blowers for both ovens are on the same circuit that is out. He calls Excel and they promise power will be back by 6 PM. Manager calls owner to arrange to do school orders from the other store, finds out other store has no power, either. By this time, I've been there three hours. I decided I'm not waitng around anymore, so I head for home.

It was nice not to have to make dough, but I lost the money from the cancelled school orders, I'm pretty sure they won't make any dough today once the power is back on, so I'll have to work twice as hard tomorrow. That totally sucks.