Lent Day 6: Feeling a Bit Irritable

Last night I had the brilliant idea of waking up early today, (I don't work on Mondays) and working on something creative or meditating extra or something else like that.  I think I pushed snooze about 14 times.  So much for bettering my life first thing.  :)

With a dentist appt. at noon and a commitment to go visit a local librarian friend who had discard books to donate to my bookswap collection, I sat down with my coffee and grapefruit water and a book.  (I am addicted to hot water with a tart grapefruit squeezed in.  It's delicious.)  "Want to go for a hike with me this morning?", asked Sal.  "Where?" I asked.  "Monserate."  "It's going to be muddy." I forgot her reply, but it was pretty much like, "So?".  So we went.  There were no cars parked at the base of the mountain, which is highly unusual, because Monserate Mountain has some pretty dedicated hikers/runners.  It had rained pretty good last night, however, and probably most everyone had the same idea that I had, which was that it would be muddy.  And it was.  We went up, up, up, scraping the thick clay off our shoes on the rocks.  It was an interesting challenge to have the mud cake up underfoot, making us taller, but unevenly so.  We took pictures of our shoes, the thick clay making them a few inches wider all the way around.  We slipped around a little bit, but neither of us landed on our booties.  We made it about halfway, and turned back around.  We decided to come again soon, without her elderly dog, and make it to the top.  As usual, I started making analogies in my head.  A friend had posted on yesterday's post that she didn't think that we ever run out of tears.  The mud collected, we walked off-balance, scraped it off, then the mud collected again.  Just like emotions, I guess, even when we're tired of feeling them.  It's part of the human experience.

Sal's foot

With the clock ticking, I forgo my shower, threw on clothes, ate a quick bite and headed off.  I called my librarian buddy and we decided that I should come by after the dentist so that I wouldn't be late.  I used the drive and extra time to call my sister-in-law, who lives in CO and is making a road trip with four kids to CA very soon, then to my mom to check in with her.  When I got to the dentist's, I had a bit of uncertainty, as the sign out front sported a different name.  Luckily, it was still the right place, just a different dentist in charge.  It was determined that I had two very old fillings with cavities underneath.  I was also overdue for a cleaning.  I settled in for a long and uncomfortable time.  I am not a fan of the scraping, poking, sticking that goes on while in the chair.  Frankly, I think it sucks and I white-knuckled it most of the time.  The bill made me almost cry.  The amount of time it took pissed me off.  I now had about 15 minutes to get to my friends' school and the drive would take me longer than that.  The lady at the front desk kept asking me to make another appointment, another appointment, another appointment. (Come back for the caps, come back for another cleaning, come back for another checkup, come back and bring us your first-born child.)  I called as I drove toward the freeway, let her know that I'd be late and that my tongue and lips were numb from the anesthesia and that I hated going to the dentist. 

We loaded the books into my car, I went back home to change into my yoga clothes.  I had a snack that didn't taste very good due to the weird chemicals still in my mouth, plus my lips felt big and rubbery.  I felt like I probably had crumbs all over my face and kept wiping away at it.  Sal and I drove to yoga. Class was awesome, as usual, but my head wasn't really in the game.  We grabbed a few groceries, stopped in to see a friend with a food hook-up, and got home.  I was hungry and tired and done and the brown rice wasn't started yet.  Sigh.  I came upstairs to start this post, but didn't know what I would say, besides that I was grumpy and that a drink with dinner sounded pretty appealing. Eating helped, as did watching "Bridesmaids", which always makes me laugh.  Being in community over here with Sally and Christian is nice, but I miss being with my son.  My intuition said that he was wanting to talk to me. Sure enough, he had texted, asking me to call.  Turns out he wants to dye his hair blue.  For some reason, this makes me feel better about everything.  

Thanks for listening.