Plumbing Signs

A few years ago, when I was in graduate school, I woke up in the morning and went to brush my teeth. As I turned the cold water handle it shot off at about 70 mph, missing my eye by an inch, hit the ceiling and thudded to the floor. An "Old Faithful"-worthy geyser streamed steadily into the air, rapidly flooding my bathroom, pouring into the hallway and kitchen. Somehow I summoned some common sense and figured out how to turn the water off before my entire apartment flooded, but it was nonetheless an ominous start to my day. After I cleaned up the mess and shook off the fact that I nearly just lost an eye, I went to the kitchen where I proceeded to attempt to "unlock" my refrigerator, not once, but twice, with my automatic car key. That should have been another warning that I wasn't fit to leave the safety of my home, but alas, I did. Over the course of that day I fail a huge exam, my phone died, my car was towed, I had to walk two miles deep into the New Orleans projects in order to spend my last $200 to get my car out of the impound. Some days we should listen to the warnings being subtly conveyed, put our pajamas back on, call in sick, and get back into the safety of our beds.
Today was that day.
It all began with what I am now convinced is God's form of communication with me, plumbing. We woke up to no hot water, but I didn't think much of it since I showered last night. I wished Julian luck on his ice-cold shower and headed off to work. Ten minutes later I was in a car accident on an overpass of I-10. Let me preface this by saying, I have been convinced for weeks that, having lived in the madness of New Orleans for four years without having been in a wreck, my time was coming. People just don't pay attention here, and even if they did, there isn't a good defensive driver for 60 miles. So as I puttered along in stop-n-go traffic, the car in front of me went from 30-0 in seconds flat. Luckily, I was far enough behind that I managed to stop without hitting them, but the woman behind me was not. As she plowed into the back of me, I plowed into the car in front of me, and experienced my head slamming so hard on my head rest I went dumb for a minute. As I pulled over, the car in front of me sped off! Your loss, I thought. They must have not been insured or thought it was their fault. Amazingly, my car survived with just scratches (officially OBSESSED with my Prius); I got her info and went on my way. I spent the rest of my day dealing with the world's most hormonal boss (ex. she uses the f-word in meetings...a lot), defending my work ethic because she is trying to deflect the fact that she has no idea what she's doing, and trying to explain to her that outliers is a real word. All the while I'm trying to decide if how much pain my head/neck/back are in since the accident is normal.
As I finally headed home I went over and over in my head all the things that sucked about today and got angrier as I thought about having to take a cold shower tonight, etc. etc., and it hit me what a brat I was being. I mean, how about NEVER having hot water? I started to think about all the things that made today a good day, like the fact that I live with the most wonderful man who brought home a heating pad for me with dinner. I have a comfortable bed to sleep this shitty day off in. My car and I survived a car wreck that could have been awful. Today really wasn't that bad. Still, the next time I wake up to a plumbing problem I'm getting back in bed and calling it a day.
Tomorrow I am going to pick up Ceci from Florida, and I want to make sure that I don't have any lingering negativity to send off bad vibes. I need to be as positive and as optimistic as I can to successfully get through the next two weeks and make the most of our little time with her. On that note, I am going to turn on my beloved Modern Family, and lay back on a heating pad!