I started the day by waking up a half an hour earlier than usual, which is always a bad sign. Life starts messing with your head as soon as it realizes that you really have to make every point in your day squeeze along a straight line. So much for linear functions…mine had to be at least x4 inclusive by the time it was over.
Work came earlier because I had to leave earlier, since apparently 3:30 was the only time I could have a pre-op doctor’s appointment, just to make sure I wasn’t carrying the latest threat, SARS II. Simply Another Reason to Shout. Picked up a meningitis vaccine while I was there, so I now have a 4/5 chance of not up and dying in 48 hours during my stay at UMBC.
While I was at work I decided to pick up my speakers and keyboard for the new computer systems Jason and I are working on (read his journal). Naturally, the speakers were in a huge box that I definitely wasn’t going to carry to the register, so I just filled out the special form and paid for the stuff with a gift card I had from my birthday (isn’t Mom sweet!). I even had a balance left over, so I put the card back into its tin.
Smart me didn’t realize that the speakers would still have the little magnetic sticker inside and would set off the alarm, and who was guarding the door but My Friend John. He’s ready for the year’s biggest thievery bust as a clever employee lumbers towards the door with a gigantic speaker box. Oh yeah, I’m making quite the break for it! Receipt in hand, I make it through and stow the stuff in my car. Did I realize that the lights were on? No, because the battery had already died, but I wouldn’t find that out for another 10 minutes.
For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to take the gift card back inside the store with me. And since it was a gift, I didn’t have any receipt to prove that it was mine. How would I get past John a second time?! Luckily, he was on lunch break, so I scooted out of there and back to my dead car.
Conscientious and Very Straight Michaela always has jumper cables in her car! Wait…not today. Further delaying my arrival at the doctor’s office was my ignorance of the office park. Finally I found the address on one of my medical forms…only ten minutes late.
Phew…time to make a madcap dash to my piano lesson, since I…oops, left my music at home. Back to the house, then to her house, now I’m 30 minutes behind.
After finishing a Michael Crichton book and talking to Rachel, life seemed to brighten just a bit more. It’s grand thing that I wasn’t working the following day.