Re-Inventing the Bad Day

I don't know what I was whining about last week with all of that "bad, terrible day" business. Today was about ten times worse.

For starters, one of the world's best dogs is now gone. My good friend had to escort her boy Spot to the Rainbow Bridge. He had had a series of strokes and was no longer functioning. Neither his brain nor his body was working. I took off work early to head over to the vet clinic and say good-bye. Spot was no casual acquaintance. He had stayed at my house several times while my friend was out of town. He was a funny little dog. Shortly after A was born, Spot was visiting. He got up with me for the middle-of-the-night feedings. During these times one likes to maintain a quiet environment so that the newborn will eat and quickly go back to bed. Spot didn't know this. He would do this funny little growl-bark thing, as if he was getting ready to rev up to full-on barking. I called it his pre-bark. I still remember him staring at me in the dark, carrying on like he did. He was generally a laid-back dog, though. More than once I stopped at my friend's house to drop something off when she wasn't home. I could see Spot through the large living room window, laying on the couch, staring blithely at me. Most dogs would have charged the window like a maniac. We used to joke that if someone would break in, Spot would lead them straight to the valuables.

My friend is, of course, devastated over her loss. I mean, she has a sizable tattoo of Spot on her shoulder. I think she may have loved that dog as much as she loves her husband.

Spit-Spot, whaddya got. I'll miss you, you goofy, googly-eyed dog.


In other news, some jackass jacked my iPod. P and I took A to her swim class last night. I threw our stuff into a tote bag so that we could change in the locker room. You have to pass through the locker room to get to the pool. I asked P to meet us on the other side so I could give him our stuff. As discussed, he met us poolside. I pulled off my t-shirt and shoved it into the bag with the rest of our gear. "Sorry to stick you with all of our crap," I said. This was a pretty sizable tote bag. The kid and I waded into the pool and joined our class. Periodically we waved at P, who was sitting in a lounge area behind a glass wall.

When the class was over A and I headed back to the locker room and found that our bag was sitting there unattended. Nice, I thought. After we were dressed I said to P, "If I'd known you would leave our stuff there, I would have put it in a locker." He acted like he didn't know what I was talking about. I mean, why would I have asked him to meet us by the pool if not to give him our stuff? Like maybe I just wanted him to come over there and admire my cellulite or something? "Oh, sorry," he said.

Early this morning I noticed that my iPod was gone, along with my security card for work (which gets me into the building). I really just wanted to cry. I loved my iPod. Surprisingly, P actually apologized for leaving my bag unattended even after I had explicitly asked him to take the bag with him. Normally he seems to find some way to turn things around so that I am at fault. Like, if he forgets to take out the garbage . . . it is actually my fault because he says I generate too much garbage. And so on it goes. Anyway, I hope the thief is enjoying my iPod. I just keep imagining some slack-jawed, acne-covered kid listening to my NPR podcasts and thinking, "What the hell is NPR?" Another thing that keeps sticking in my head: YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association, does it not?

And because bad things come in threes, I should add that my kid and her friend got their hands on a bottle of nail polish at daycare today. A painted her entire foot. I have not yet figured out how to get it off. I'm hesitant to use the remover on her skin. Our daycare provider did apologize, because she felt she had stored the nail polish on a sufficiently high shelf. The other troublemaker is HER daughter. A and her friend are three months apart in age, so you can imagine the good ideas they come up with. One time they snuck into a closet and ate an entire bottle of decorative sprinkles. They sucked them right out of the jar.

I am feeling the need for some comfort food right about now.