the best-laid plans of mice and men...

To put it simply, my weekend was a complete and total bust. The entire trip to Springfield ended up being ill-fated and pointless. Don't worry - I'm over the horrible foul mood I was in yesterday, so I can now look upon it with a modicum of humour. Yesterday, though, you would NOT have wanted to cross paths with me!

Let's start at the beginning. On Monday morning, Brian had noticed that the valve in the basement that controls the water coming into the house had a slow drip. He told our landlord about it, but our landlord, in typical fashion, didn't do anything about it all week. On Friday at 4:30 p.m., we were completely ready to leave the house - the car was packed and running, people! We thought it wise to shut off the water, lest the drip turn into something more while we were gone. So, I went down to the basement to do so, and when I turned the handle, it came off and water started spewing from the pipe! OMG. Long story short - our landlord came and called a plumber, and we ended up making him stay until it was fixed, so that we could get on the road. We left an hour late, but made it to Springfield by 7:00. To sum up this part of the story, when we got home today, the pipe and valve were fine, but our landlord had left the basement lights blazing and the water turned on all weekend, even though he had told us over the phone that he had turned both off. Sigh.

So, off we went to Springfield, and when we got there, we had pizza and retired early. By this point, my voice was completely gone, and I was 99.99% sure that I would not be able to sing at church on Sunday morning. Because of this and the water issue, I was in a bad mood, and Brian and I were snippy and bickering with each other. Let's just say that when plans go awry, I don't handle it well, and when I get upset about stuff, Brian doesn't handle THAT well. It doesn't make for a good time. I did, indeed, have to cancel my gig, which totally sucks, because I was really excited about singing the song I had chosen, and we could really have used the money! Aarrrrggghhhh. That was the first time I had ever had to cancel on a paying gig, and I hated having to do that. But, as you might recall, we still had reason to be in Springfield, because we had a family portrait scheduled for Saturday morning, and we had brought our dressy clothes with us, planning a very fancy picture, indeed. Can you guess by now that something derailed that, too? Oh, yes.

See, Nick has this habit, this self-soothing mechanism, if you will, of banging his face against his mattress to put himself to sleep. When he was younger, we were all worried that he was autistic, but doctors assured us that since he only does it in bed, we didn't need to worry. It's just his way of putting himself to sleep. Odd, yes, but mostly harmless. Occasionally, though, he'll really go to town and end up abrading his nose - giving himself sort of a sheet-burn. And, you guessed it! When we went into his room Saturday morning, he had a doozy of a red, raw, oozing abrasion on his nose. And that was the straw that broke the portrait camel's back. Don't get me wrong - I would have no problem with going ahead with a portrait if he had, say, a little scratch on his face, or even a small bruise. But this was a big, honkin' red, oozing sore right on his nose. Add that to my already foul mood and the fact that I could barely talk and wasn't feeling well, and I pretty much lost it. Which led to more strain between me and Brian. What a fun morning! We cancelled the portrait, and I proceeded to sulk mightily for a few hours. I finally left the house and went and vented to Tim for awhile, and then went for some lunch with him. After eating, I went to do another thing that I had planned for the weekend, thinking "Even if everything else has gone to hell, at least I can do the shopping I had planned to, so the weekend will not have been for naught." I had various coupons to redeem, and items to seek. Remember that I was in a foul mood and didn't feel well. Also know that I can't handle an uber-crowded mall during the holidays. What was I thinking? It was Saturday afternoon in mid-November! I walked into the mall and almost immediately regretted it, and it only got worse with every step I took and every store I entered. I ended up being there for all of 20 minutes, during which I hastily bought something at one store, and then I hightailed it out of there. I just couldn't handle it! So, I had all these coupons that went unused, and I didn't buy anything on my list. I slunk back to my Dad's house, completely defeated, and spent the rest of the evening watching TV shows that I had recorded. That was fairly comforting, and helped to calm me down a bit.

Yet another plan of ours went unrealized, which was to go to the Titanic attraction in Branson. To be fair, that was completely our decision, because there was no reason we still couldn't have gone on Saturday after I returned from the mall. I was just so down and felt so grumpy and pathetic that the last thing I wanted to do was drive to Branson and battle crowds, so we opted out. In retrospect, it was probably a wise decision. I can't imagine I would have enjoyed myself much at all.

So, to sum up for you: spewing pipe, lost voice and cancelled church gig, cancelled portrait, aborted shopping trip, and no visit to the Titanic. We were batting 1000!

This morning, I did the ONE productive thing of the whole weekend, which was going to the church between services to talk to the music director and get the music for the lessons and carols service I'll be singing in on December 14. That took all of 30 minutes, and if not for that, there was absolutely NO need for us to be in Springfield this weekend. We headed home early, and got here by 1:00. And here I am. Thank goodness this horrible weekend is drawing to a close; I can only hope that the coming week is better!