December 7, 2009
Welcome to My Life
Do you ever have one of those days?
Well, my whole life has been one of those days recently, but today was one of the more frustrating days I’ve had in a while.
It started off fine. Wayne and I went to visit some friends in Austin over the weekend, and much fun and barbeque was had by all (except by me, who doesn’t eat barbeque. But whatever.). Even though our connecting flight out of Houston was delayed by a snowstorm on the way there (a snowstorm? In Houston?!), our flight home got in early and was relatively painless. We woke up this morning in good spirits. Except for one little thing. I had to take the cats to the vet.
I had told my boss I would be in to work a bit late, but it was supposed to be a quick follow-up visit—ten minutes tops. I would be in to work before anyone really noticed I was gone.
Do any of you have cats? They do not like to go to the vet. Mine do not like to leave the apartment at all, and they freak out when they see the cat carrier come out. Today, they saw it and ran for their lives, and it took me a good while to find both of them, and another ten minutes to wrestle them into their carrier. But at least the hard part was done.
Not even close. I lugged the cat carrier loaded down with two fat fatties out to the car. This was no easy feat. The car was parked a good five blocks away, and it was freezing out, and together the cats are not exactly light. I finally got them there, and I was sweating. I loaded the carrier into the backseat, strapped myself in, and I was good to go. I had a half hour before the appointment, and it was a five minute drive away. Golden.
I turned the key. And naturally, the car did not turn on. What did turn on is a little light that I had never noticed before. I called Wayne frantically. He explained that this light is the car alarm, and that if I messed with the battery—which he thought was the problem—the alarm would likely go off. My first question was the obvious one: Our car has an alarm? Since when?
Apparently Wayne discovered it by accident one time, when he messed with the battery and the alarm went off and he had no idea how to turn it off. He told me that he finally discovered that you can turn it off is the keychain with the buttons that came with the car. I vaguely knew what he was talking about. And it was, naturally, back in the apartment.
I could either lug the cats back to the apartment to get it, or lock them in the car and hope no one called the ASPCA on me. I voted for option 2, and scribbled a note explaining to any curious passersby that I am not in fact an animal abuser and am in fact an animal lover and a vegetarian and wouldn’t lock my cats in a car except under extreme circumstances. And then I sprinted back to the apartment.
I made it back to the car in what must have been my personal best time, which is not bad considering I wasn’t exactly suited up for running. I came up alongside of the car, and realized—no one cared. No one even noticed, and the Animal Police certainly weren’t lined up to arrest me.
So. Ok. I fiddled with the key, and wa ready with the alarm button, but it was kind of irrelevant because the engine wouldn’t turn over at all. Wayne suggested I just leave it there for him to deal with, but I pointed out that I actually had to move the car because of street cleaning. In New York, they make you move your car once a week or so, and today was the day for this side of the street. I had to be out of that spot by 11 or I would get a parking ticket. They’re $65 a pop.
I finally broke down and called AAA. They sent a guy out, and half an hour later he arrived and hooked up some charger thing to my battery. The alarm went off, and he told me that the battery wouldn’t hold a charge and I needed a new one. If I turned off the car, I wouldn’t be able to start it back up again (so driving to vet was out if I wanted to get home again). I had to take it to a mechanic.
I was now forty-five minutes late to the vet, and an hour and forty-five minutes late to work. But I didn’t know what else to do, so I followed him to a mechanic way on the other side of Brooklyn, cats in tow, where they treated me like an idiot for being female and then took all my money (and left me with a new battery).
I drove back to the vet, and arrived an hour and a half late for my appointment (I had at least called to let them know). Luckily for me, I have never seen another customer in my vet’s office. I think I may be the only client he has, which most people would take as a bad sign, but I think is awesome because I can always get an appointment. He was currently in the middle of a surgery on a dog, and I got to sit and wait for twenty minutes.
Finally, he pulled my now-catatonic-with-fear catjerks out of their carrier, gave them some medicine, and three minutes later and fifty bucks poorer, I was on my way. Things had finally turned around, I decided. Sure, I was now almost three hours late to work, but all I had to do was get the cats home, hop on the subway, and get there before my boss noticed I hadn’t poked my head out of my office all day.
I drove home, and look around for a parking space. And drove. And drove. Remember that street cleaning thing? Yeah. Because one side of the street on every block was currently verboten, there were no spots to be had. I finally stalked a man on his way to his car and waited until he pulled away. Forty minutes after I got to my neighborhood, I made it back to the apartment, cats in tow.
To review: My cats hated me, I was so late for work it was not even funny, I was exhausted, and I was about two hundred dollars poorer than I was when I started out that morning. I hated the world. Wayne called and asked how it went. I hung up on him (not quite, but close).
I finally rolled in to work around 1:45. My co-worker looked up in surprise, and said she thought I wasn’t coming in, since I took the day off.
That’s right, folks. I had actually taken the entire day off as a vacation day, and forgot. Did I mention I hate the world?
Welcome to my life.
YOU FORGOT YOU TOOK A VACATION DAY?!?! I was sympathetic until I heard that part. That’s just insanity. And then the sympathy came back again. BUT STILL.
Reading about your day made me think of the book title….Someone and the “Horrible, Awful, No-Good, Very Bad Day”. I think it’s a kids book, and the title is something like that (obviously I can’t remember the character’s name! hopefully one of you can)…but anyway.
What a horrible day, Anne. I’m so sorry. Tomorrow can ONLY be better, right?
It’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day! And it’s hilarious. But only hilarious when you haven’t just gone through a similar day - I’m so sorry!!
Bless your heart! I’ve had those days, but I think they must be a zillion times harder in the city. My mechanic is a block away. My office is only a little more than that. And I don’t have any cats.
Wow, that’s an award winning super bad day. But I’m glad the cats didn’t escape. I was holding my breath as I read, hoping they wouldn’t make a break for it, making you chase them through Brooklyn.
Oh DEAR. Did you at least turn around and take the rest of the day off, after going all the way to work?
Poor Anne. I hope today is better.
Aww
I hate days like that…
Well, it’s over now, right? One thing to be happy about
Anne, that sounds like a nightmare I have about once a month. Seriously.
Please tell me you turned around and went right back home the moment you remembered you took the day off.
Seriously that was an epically bad day. Perhaps it’s nothing but blue skies from now on?
Oh my gosh! That is so horrible!!! You poor, exhausted soul. Chick Flick, blankets and hot chocolate might be in order!
I had a bad day today: My boss called me and fired me. This after she told me I was a good worker last week.
Oh Amanda, I’m so sorry!!!
I’ll definitely keep you in my prayers.
Oh my, that’s funny! Not ha ha funny, but coincidental, cat-world funny. I just took both my cats to the vet last Thursday and had a harrowing experience as well! Luckily, the snow hadn’t arrived yet (it’s here today, oh boy!) but seeing as how Frodo and Sam are indoors 354 days of the year… they’re very coddled, I guess, cos the mere second they’re put in the car, they start mewling and eventually - I don’t know if it’s the confined cage, nausea from the potholes or just the fact of having a different experience - Sam always goes to the bathroom… Stinky…
Once they’re at the vet, they’re okay - they don’t even flinch or anything when they get their booster shots - and they’re usually fine on the return trip as well. Frodo, especially, just miaows. This time they both went to the bathroom in their cages! So then they had to have baths… I guess you’ve seen those photos of wet cats that people pass around by email sometimes… They look so sad! Come to think of it, maybe I should have taken some photos. We definitely need to get them more used to the car!
By the way, how is it that your vet trip cost only 50$? Ours was 150$! Grr…
Sorry, didn’t mean to be anonymous, that was me!