Suck it up

This week bites. And good Lord, it is only Tuesday. I'm exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed and struggling with deadlines.

There is another freaking mouse in our apartment. I am choosing to believe (or try about 847 times a day) to convince myself it is no longer in the apartment and that it just came to raid our pantry and skate along the (oh yes) ledge of the bathtub. I mentally begged the nasty rodent to please play outside and leave me to my panic attack inside in the air conditioning. It is JUNE, for goodness sake. JUNE! Who gets a mouse in JUNE?

Not only is our pantry off-limits, our bank accounts are too. The bank fucked up and charged us a bunch of fees, hurling us into the red temporarily. The bank's agreed to get its act together and credit our account, but for the time being, we're broke as an un-funny joke.

And Bruce, being the sweet man that he is, dug out a picture frame I gave him a couple of years ago. It is the kind you can record little bits on for every photo. He asked me to record Lil E and fill it with photos and give it back to him for Father's Day. Sentiment on the cheap. I love it. The only problem? We have a gajillion photos on memory cards sitting on my desk and a printer that's broken and can't print off pictures. Niiiiice. I think I will be going to Costco and counting out change as I have one 10-cent print developed at a time.

Now that I've overdosed on my own complaints, here's the good stuff that sustained me today:

* Going on a Home Depot Adventure with Lil E today, at his request. We even took the bus, counting out dimes for fare and pointing out the places we knew along the way. We spent an hour-and-a-half making elephant noses and googly eyes out of PVC, using copper tubing as drumsticks and microphones, testing the mallets and hammers and drills and plastic-coated chains, and intently watching the "forklift guy" as he moved palates of tiles.

* Laughing as Lil E later ran naked through my parents' back yard, playing golf and wading bit by bit through the little pool. As he leaned his bare belly over the edge of the pool and rinsed his golf balls in the water, my mom leaned over to me and said in the way only she can pull off, "Funny, I already knew the pool was a ball washer." And we laughed even harder than we had before.

* An icy cold Diet Coke waiting for me in the fridge. A funny email riff from my hilarious coworkers. A tag by  Susiej that I promise to get to tomorrow. My friend Kate, who sends me cheery blog comments, who constantly challenges herself and reminds me to do the same and with more grace, and who keeps things very real for me.

Now, back to Home Depot. And this time, for more traps.

Comments

[2Jmama]

Yoo Hoo! Feeling like you are at the moment. Thanks for the shout out, it lifted my spirits and reminded me to chill and grab a diet coke!

[Ivy]

Ack. There are very few things in the world that scare me, but for some stupid assed reason, mice terrify me. Good luck getting rid of the bugger!

[foodmomiac]

Just come over tonight and print the photos. We have printer paper and a little place to stick the card in. I MIGHT make you help me pack, but I promise to give you cocktails in return.

[Carol]

Mouse ... eek a!

Well, you know how I feel about mice. Mechanical or otherwise.