This post is going to be realllllly long. You have been warned.

So, apparently Monday was the day from Satan, or something. Let’s begin at the beginning.

I must have stayed up way too late writing my oh-so-philosophical and angsty post. (See the protected entry below…and if you don’t have the password, let me know and I’ll [probably] hook you up.) I went to bed semi-late last night. Guess what I did this morning when my alarm went off at 5 AM? I turned off my alarm (didn’t even hit snooze), and promptly went back to sleep. I thought it was Sunday morning. ok, no problem…only I woke up again at 6:30 when the phone rang and someone was talking on my answering machine. Do you know why? Because I was supposed to be at work at 6 AM.

oopsie daisy.

My boss wasn’t mad, thank goodness! His message pretty much said, “yeah…I’m just wondering where you are,” so I called him back straightaway and explained. “I’m so sorry! I totally slept in…I’ll be there as soon as I can!” I hurried up to get ready and ended up being 45 minutes late for my shift. Which isn’t really that bad, considering this is the first time ever at this job that I’ve been late (and I’ve been there almost two years). So my boss wasn’t angry and I was mainly embarrassed.

ok.

Then it turned out that Evil Co-Worker called in sick (yet again) today. So my boss asked me to cover for her. No problem, all my own work is pretty much up-to-date, so I had no trouble doing her job and mine. The fact that it took me three hours to finish what she needs seven hours to do should tell you something. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m being mean again. (But it is true.)

Actually, it is looking like Evil Co-Worker might not be around much longer! Mayyybe. Someone else might be taking her spot because she just is not catching onto her position. I mean, I used to do that job so I know it can be tough learning everything and remembering what to do, but it has been four months already and she is still so slow to catch on…anyway, keep your fingers crossed that she moves on to something more suited for her.

So the rest of the day at work wasn’t too bad…I stayed extra to make up for my lost 45 minutes, and all was well.

Well…

Let me backtrack a bit. Yesterday, I was unloading groceries and such from my car trunk when I looked at my license plate and realized that my car registration expires at the end of June. This month! yikes! So I brought all the bags into the house, went back out to my car to get my registration, and brought it into the house. (Can you sort of sense where this is going?) I wanted to call the husband to make sure he didn’t already renew it and maybe my new tags were in the mail. Well, he was supposed to call me at 2 PM (he’s out of town, remember), so I put the registration on the coffee table and figured I would ask him about it when he called. (It was only noon or something.) Actually, I called his cellphone, but only got his voicemail, so I decided I would just wait.

Then I had to go do my laundry, so I was sorting clothes in our bedroom and Autumn (our female puppy) was in the room with me, chewing on a rawhide. Orion (our male) was in the living room; I figured he was lying on the couch.

haha…still with me?

Sooo I went and loaded my laundry in the washer and all that, did some other stuff…I think I ate and watched TV, then the husband called and I asked him about the registration. Nope, he didn’t renew it…I’d better do it before it expires. ok…um…wait…where’d it go?!?!

The bloody registration vanished.

I *know* I either put it next to my computer (because I was looking up DMV online to see if I could renew it online), or on the coffee table. But I am 99% sure that I put it on the coffee table because the phone is closer to the coffee table, and I was waiting for the phone call. But just to be sure: I checked all over the floor, under the couch, on the other table, under the other table, in our bedroom (where I knew it wasn’t), in the trash just to make sure I didn’t throw it away…nowhere to be found.

So while I was ranting to my husband about going crazy and/or senile and not having a stinking clue where I put the paper, I realized: Orion loves to chew paper. agggggh I bet he ate it!!! The registration is (was) a flimsy, small piece of paper…I will bet money that he ate it. He has done that before. And while I do not have evidence to prove this highly circumstantial dilemma, what other explanation is there? I looked *everywhere* for that stupid paper, including places I knew it wouldn’t be.

I have pretty much concluded that “my dog ate my car registration.” How’s that for an excuse?

Anyway, forgive my tangent; I just needed to explain why I had to go to DMV (or MVD, as it’s called in New Mexico; don’t ask) today after work. I needed a copy of my registration since our dog ate my only copy!

Well, after I got off work a little later than normal (to make up for the Great Oversleep of 2006), I headed straight into town, to the MVD. I made sure to have my driver’s license and proof of insurance ready. I even brought some extra papers along, just in case they needed them. I got to the MVD, and as I was walking in, I noticed a sign posted on their window:

CLOSING EARLY TODAY AT 3 PM FOR TRAINING

aw, crap. What time is it? 2:35. phew! I made it in time! (ah, famous last words.)

I went inside, and the place was hopping! Not packed, but definitely busy. Well, I still got there in time, so I took a number (after a wee confusion over where the number machine was; a clerk had to literally point me in the right direction, haha). I sat down and waited. My wait wasn’t too long, actually; probably only about ten minutes or so.

So my number was up, and I went up to the corresponding cubicle. I told the clerk what my problem was, though I did NOT tell her that my dog ate my registration. I just told her I lost it. Because, well, it was true and there was no way I was going to get laughed at or looked at like I was lying. So yeah, “I lost it.” ok, I gave her my ID and insurance card, and she looked me up in her computer. la di da, waiting, waiting. She typed some more, asked me a few basic questions, and I was ready to go. “Okay, it will be five dollars.”

aw, crap again. Don’t have cash. The checkbook is at home. And guess what! The MVD doesn’t accept debit cards.

sheesh…

And trying to be as apologetic as possible, I asked the lady if I could come back since I did not have cash. “Well…we’re about to close at three,” she said. I know, but I just need an ATM! “Oh, ok. There’s a gas station across the street. I’ll go ahead and print this and you can come back up,” she said. What a saint!

So I had to go back out to my car, drive across the street, get some cash, go back out, drive back across the street, go back into the MVD, take another number (I wasn’t sure if I needed to…but just to make sure)! The lady saw me, though, and waved me over. She let me pay and all that without having to wait (a saint, I tell you, a saint). All this trouble over a lousy piece of paper! The lunacy!

Well, I was just relieved to have my registration back in my car, safe and sound.

oh, but the day was not over yet! There really is more.

On my way home, one of the traffic lights at a fairly busy intersection was out. In the middle of the day, even. I have no clue why, but I needed to turn left. Imagine a semi-busy intersection in broad daylight with no traffic lights to guide anyone. yeah. There was total confusion. I waited because I did not want to get into a wreck on top of everything else, but people were just so confused and I couldn’t turn. I basically said, “screw it!” and drove straight instead. It’s somewhat of a miracle that I didn’t get into an accident doing that, btw.

Well, I made it home. I ate something and that made me feel better. Then I went online. hmmm…now who would have thought that checking one’s email could be so disastrous?

One of my emails was an email notification from Bank of America, who I have a credit card with. “You have a new bill from Bank of America credit card.” ok, I knew I had a payment due sometime soon. la di da, open the email…

GASP.

Minimum payment due: $410.77

!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all kinds of uncool. ahem…apparently BOA doesn’t like it when you max out your credit card and they will not hesitate to assess you a $35 service charge on top of your regular finance charge in order to punish you. all right, I give up!

ugh. I am considering just cutting up this card even though it isn’t paid off yet. I have one other card left, just in case I need it for emergencies…I had planned to get rid of the other one, but maybe I should get rid of the BOA. This cannot be good for my credit score.

I called the husband to tell him the awful news (i.e., I need money and BOA hates me). First I made him promise not to freak out, though. That way, it wasn’t a total shock. I thought he would be mad, but he wasn’t, really. He just said, “well, go ahead and pay the bill when you get paid…” um, yeah, that’s almost my whole paycheck! I need money, can’t you see?! And he insisted on telling me it was ok, a lot of people are far worse off financially than we are, and it will get paid on Friday. The card itself will get paid off eventually. Which is true…but come on! $410.77?? That is obscene. I need to learn how to manage money better, obviously.

So. That is my no good, very bad, horrible, awful day. Good grief, I hope tomorrow is better!! (oh, and if you read all this…you’re a saint as well.)

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 6:13 pm and is filed under My So-Called Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.