September 23, 2004 - 12:13 a.m.

Grumble, Grumble

I am not having a good day. Thanks to staying up to watch the extra innings of the Red Sox game (we won - hooray!), I am tired and was a bit irritable to start with. M's birthday is today, which should be a good thing (and making a little note to surprise her in her lunch box did make me smile), but B is already getting bent out of shape about the attention, presents, and cards being directed her way. I am putting up with none of that, and, thankfully, neither are his parents.

I went to the grocery store after taking the kids to school, only to discover I had left the list at home. Shopping for a family of six without the list is not an option, especially since I sometimes forget things even when I have the list. After the trip back home to fetch it, I got the shopping done. Then, while I was carrying bags of groceries into the house, the screen door banged into my foot giving me a lovely bloody gash.

Worst of all, I just called the child life department at Johns Hopkins and found out my application arrived LATE! I am not sure whether I am more mad or upset. LATE? I mailed it Express Mail on the 3rd. I checked the USPS website that weekend - it was delivered on the 4th. Apparently it was delivered to the hospital mailroom, since the child life office wasn't open, it being a Saturday. For whatever reason, it didn't show up in the office until the 7th - I am guessing the mailroom was closed on the 6th, which was Labor Day - the day after the deadline. Apparently, the woman in charge of the applications doesn't care that it wasn't entirely my fault it was late. On the bright side, she said my application would still be reviewed and that they consider all strong applications. I'm not sure whether my application is "strong" by their standards, but I'd like to think so. Mine was not the only late application, which is a bit of a relief, but she also said there were about 20 applications that arrived on time, and I have no idea how much the lateness affects their decision making process. I am both disappointed and pissed, and I actually shed a few tears after I hung up the phone. Now the waiting period is going to be that much more difficult. Ugh. At least by calling, I made it clear that I am interested enough in the internship to check in with them about the status of my application.

The good parts of my day so far have been wearing my cute new corduroy skirt, and making a batch of gourmet trail mix. I call it gourmet, because I used more high end ingredients than typical trail mix. It has white chocolate and butterscotch chips instead of chocolate, dried cherries, peaches, and apricots in place of raisins, and cashews and hazelnuts rather than peanuts. Yum! Also, it is a gorgeous day outside, so there are positives in my crappy day. Let's hope it gets better from here!

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