Tuesday

The day began at 4:26am...with a scratching at my bedroom door. Beyond the stronghold of my lair lingered a canine, fearful of thunder [and lightning]. I tossed and turned and because of his outcries, I also then laid awake bothered by the flicker and rumble of the storm.

Thankfully, sleep befell me once again, and I did not stir until the hour of 8 [90 minutes later than intended]. I awoke with a start, sensing the missed alarm and leaped from my bed to quickly calculate the one hour I had to ready myself for the day.

Shower. [check]

Dogs. [check]

Make-up. [check]

Hair. [check]

I've mentioned the recent trial of parking at school, a true debacle if you will, yet this morning was a circus all it's own. It mirrored the honking and jams of traffic that occur only in a Manhattan rush hour. I yelled and cursed before miraculously, a vacant space appeared [and choirs of angels sang halleluiahs]. I fled the vehicle in a haste spurred by tardiness. Off to class.

Then a college job fair [and more bad traffic] that I might only ever equate to a nightmare of capitalistic proportion. Like Sebold paints the victim's Heaven, my mail order Hell must resemble twenty-somethings herded into clusters of awkward suits and phony grins, and firm handshakes and eye-contact. If given but one wish in this lifetime, I would gamble in every other opportunity to somehow bypass the slimy grip of corporate America.

Yet again, off to class, which preceded a third bought of traffic vexation...[ah, a trend!]

Dinner included a re-indulgence of last night's turkey chili, that like a fine wine only improves with age. I had enough time to eat, check e-mail, and tend to the dogs before embarking on a new adventure: a writing group. We gathered, provided introductions - our purpose and expectations, and mixed the hues of one another's richly colored characters in an hour. It was lovely and motivating and hopeful. It was one more baby-step in the professional direction.

Oh, and I failed to mention the traffic fiasco well underway in the parking lot of our meeting place...when it rains it pours [and it did that all day, too...].

Following the empowerment of writer-speak, I headed directly for Starbucks [which I hear may be incorporating free internet???]. It's where I go to study because it boasts fewer distractions than the zoo of my apartment. I chatted briefly with the Staff Sergeant, then not-so-briefly with Dad. Between phone calls I swallowed excruciating doses of strategic management in preparation for tomorrow's test. I'm praying that the televised meteorologists mean blizzard when they say flurries are in tonight's forecast. I could really use a whole day spent snuggled between the covers, free of obligation...but I won't be holding my breath.

And that, my friends, was Tuesday.