Where am I, you ask? In a state of anxiety, where nothing is going as planned. Please don't say something like man plans and God laughs. I don't find it amusing on a good day, and today is not a good day. To make matters worse, (and they can always get worse) the plans aren't mine-- Well, they are mine but they aren't plans I wanted to make. They were foisted on me by those who claim to know better. To start with it's Monday, as if that wasn't bad enough to start with. I gave myself extra time because even if I don't want to go, I hate being late, but there was an accident on the way that slowed traffic to a crawl. Just when I thought I'd made up the time, there was a traffic circle that was backed up for a mile. Finally at my destination (only 4 minutes past my time), I had a burst of happy surprise as the parking lot appeared empty, and I thought I'd be in and out in a flash. There I go thinking again. On the door were signs of apology-- they had no power so they were closed. Numbers listed (2 of them!) where to call to reschedule. I don't want to reschedule. I don't want to deal with any of this, but I call one number and then the other. I'm trying to remain calm, but I need this taken care of today. The voice at the end of the line, business-like and pleasant, informs me that a voice mail had been left for me yesterday about the rescheduling issue. I never received it. Tomorrow at... No, that won't do. This needs to be done today or another procedure will need to be rescheduled. It's not too long before I've got an appointment, 5 hours later and 30 miles in the opposite direction of where I am. It's only mid-morning and I'm worn thin. I won't say it could be worse, because of course it could, and I don't like to tempt the fates. I don't have much choice but to cross my fingers, pray the day proceeds with less drama than it began, and hope whoever's in charge is paying attention. But I'm not counting on it.
~Elise Skidmore ©2020
