Ice cream in my coffee & other tricks to wipe out cranky

It's occurred to me that I need to employ some serious tricks to turn my day around before the morning gets too far underway. Consider:

• I awake without the aid of an alarm clock. Feel genuinely - and uncustomarily - tired and cranky, as well as sleepy. This surprises me. I usually wake up feeling refreshed and optimistic about my day.
  
• Decide it's probably 3 o'clock and if I quick run down the hall for a visit to the bathroom and don't put on my glasses (I don't sleep in my contacts,) and don't turn on any lights, maybe I won't wake entirely, and will be able to fall back asleep.
• Reentering the bedroom, I walk over to take a look at the alarm clock that is far away from my bed.
• Discover it's 6:34am.
• This annoys me more than I can tell you. Far, far too many things must be accomplished today.
• I get back into bed, anyway.
• Only to discover, about 15 minutes later, that I'm nowhere close to falling back asleep.
  
• And that I'm still in a very bad mood.
  
• And although I very much want to sleep, there's no point in deluding myself any longer because my brain refuses to turn itself off and stop giving me an imagined play-by-play of the way I need my day to go.
• So I get up.
• But still don't turn on any lights.
• And in the kitchen, having miraculously not knocked off any of my toes in getting there, I turn on only a small light to make the coffee.
• While it's brewing, I come in here to check my email.
• Only to find a person who has written to me has ignored some general courtesies in lieu of a personal agenda, and this irritates me further.
• Respond politely - I think so, anyway - and move on to another.
• Notice a note I scrawled last night, with many stars and question marks and exclamation marks beside it, and recall the problem with a project I was working on for a client. Add "figure this out asap" to my mental list of today's tasks.
• Begin to feel pressure on my chest.
• Realize the coffee is ready.
• But during last night's errands, ran out of enthusiasm before making it to the supermarket, and, therefore, have only a small amount of 2% milk to add to my coffee.
  
• This is not a 2% Milk In My Coffee kind of day.
• But I pour it anyway, because I hate black coffee.
• Then recall all that ice cream I bought last week when I was deciding whether or not to indulge in a pint. A different brand was on sale: Buy One Get Two Free. TWO FREE HALF GALLON BOXES OF ICE CREAM???
• That's more than a pint, but I bought 'em anyway, because... well, duh!
• But now I have all this ice cream and, oh, did I happen to mention Saturday is the last night I'm spending in my current dwelling place? And I'm a bit unclear as to how well partially-eaten cartons of ice cream travel on warm days.
  
• So I open the carton of vanilla and scoop out a honkin spoonful and put it on top of my irritating coffee with its simpering 2% milk paleness, and it quickly begins to hold more appeal.
• But, even having indulged myself thusly, I find I'm still enormously cranky.
• And looking down at the weather toolbar at the bottom of my laptop I find that temperatures are anticipated to reach 91 degrees. And that annoys me, too. Seeing as how one of the things on my list today is to take another load of stuff to storage.
  
• It gets really hot in my storage unit.
• But you know what? I should be so lucky as to be hot in my storage unit. I am far, far from ready to even think of putting a single thing on that truck, much less unloading it...
• The bookcase I'm taking, for example? It's still filled from top to bottom.
• I hope I have enough boxes.
• And besides that, I also truly hope your day is magnificent.
  
• And history suggests that if I keep peeking around for things to brighten my mood - music, pictures of Mr. Pie, this or that momento - still unpacked - chances are I'll still be able to turn this day around.
• After all, it isn't even 8 o'clock yet.
• Plus, you know what? I just poured another cup of coffee. And this one? It has 2 scoops of ice cream in it!
  

Comments

[Don/Dad]

You've come a long way, Baby!

There was a time that NO ONE could get you out of bed on those days! You would crash, and the idea of "perfect attendance" in school didn't even occur to you! Instead, You would nap it out until you just woke up naturally.

Then,(on days when Mom was in school), If I was lucky, you would fix me a hamburger in a manner that no one else could or would make them. I suppose that that's how you "redeemed" the day!

Love,

Dad

[Melody]

Ohhhh! I love you Daddy! Thanks for the nostalgic smiles! (Those were some good burgers, no?)

See...it's already better! (Plus, I've moved some furniture, and made my list, and the music is awesome (although you'd HATE it, with all those bluesy guitar riffs and its wailing vocals and hypnotic rhythms...) and although I'm not yet convinced I'm going to be able to pull it off (be happy I didn't post the to-do list today, YOUR chest would be tightening, too!) I'm certainly calling up all that optimism I inherited from you.

Thanks!

PS: What did those Perfect Attendance Certificates they gave out on Awards Day EVER do for the recipients, besides make 'em feel good that day, and maybe get 'em a prize at home from their parents who might have set up their own familial award program?

Nah, I'd rather have my kind of memories, myself...

[Dena]

I'd like to try that coffee...

[Mom]

Did Dad ever say this to you? "But you make them so much better than I do."

I'd like a cup of that coffee too!

Have a productive day. Wish I were there to help you--nah!

Love,
Mom

[Dad]

Yes, those were good burgers! Makes my mouth water now just to think of them, (even if you were playing hooky (?)--or is that language foreign to your generation?

And that coffee--a "coffee float"? Now I don't know about that!

Dad

[nancy]

I'm so glad that somebody besides me had those yucky mornings!!

[Melody]

Dena: you should. It's awesome. Maybe we'll make it together sometime.

Mom: yes, that's one of Dad's lines...when he thinks he's being, hmmm...is it coy?

Dad: I know what playing hooky is but you're right, people don't say that much these days. Maybe it WAS a coffee float. And it was yummy, too.

Nancy: Sorry you have those too. Sheesh!