Where's the padded cell when you really need it?

It started out like any other morning. I slept through the alarm, leaped out of bed, threw on some fuzzy slippers and jumped into the car to take my daughter to school. It was 7:00 and school begins at 7:15. I did not want to have to go to the registrar's office and sign in my daughter late wearing fuzzy slippers, so you can just imagine what kind of driving I did to get her there.

Next up, my other daughter. She needed her college ID to take a test at school, but couldn't find it. In true motherly style, I located it immediately, just in time to get her in the car and drive her to the bus stop. We got there as the bus was pulling up. I was proud. I got back home just in time for her phone call from the fire station around the corner from the bus stop. "I forgot my bus pass and I didn't have any money, so I missed the bus." The fireman waved at me knowingly as we drove off and headed uptown toward the college. I asked if she ate breakfast. No, she hadn't. I reminded her she had class until 3:20 and asked when she expected to eat breakfast. I dunno. Now, this girl has never had a problem coming up with things to say. She's turned out to be a very dramatic and social young woman despite our best efforts at isolation. (We homeschooled her, but even that horrible undersocialization didn't work. Guess we'll have to try something new.)

I finally made it back home to find a note on my door from the water company. Our water was turned off because of nonpayment. Huh? A water bill came to my house and I didn't pay it? Where could that bill be? I searched and searched and came up empty. So I called and paid over the phone. Then I called the electric company, gas company, and Time Warner cable. Everything was paid up. So where was that skanky water bill hiding?!?!?

While I was on the phone with these creditors of mine, I noticed that someone had balanced the drawers of our brand new dresser precariously on top of my new nightstand. They tumbled down and the edge chipped off of one of the drawers. It's no longer new. It's now officially "scratch and dent" merchandise. And I'm getting miffed!

As I was searching for the water bill, I found my daughter's symphony pass. We could have gone to several free concerts, but we missed them since the pass was no longer on my desk. Hmmmm....

I am not the most organized person in the world. We have too many pets and too many children. I'm not particularly well suited to lots of commotion. I'm more the introspective type who longs for lush greenery, singing birds, long romantic walks amid rose gardens with my man. Instead, I've got bird poo on my carpet, toys and junk all over my house, workmen in my bedrooms, and wii-playing kids whooping and hollering in the living room. What is all this -- bad karma from a past life? (Just kidding!)

I called the water company three times. I obsess over things like this for some reason. I must be slightly neurotic or something. They assured me the water would be turned on within 48 hours. 48 HOURS!! Toilets cannot wait that long to be flushed. I draw the line. After the third phone call, they must have had mercy on me because an indistinguishable white truck pulled up in front of our house and a man slid out, kneeled down in our front yard and flipped a switch of some kind. The water was back on. How do I know all this? Because I had been sitting on the front steps waiting for him ever since the last phone call. Yup. Obsessive.

Happily yours amid the stinky stuff that happens to everyone -- at least I hope it does or I'm being singled out!!

Megan Elizabeth