Thursday, February 16, 2006

Worst day ever

So today really blows. Its the worst day ever.

How so, you ask? Let's start at the beginning.

I wake up to find cat vomit all over my beige carpet. Yuck.

I have to sort, organize, and manage years of paperwork accumulated during my education in order to prepare for my qualifying exams. This is depressing: either I don't remember anything from these courses or I am reminded of just what a waste of time they were in the first place.

I go to the dentist. It is located on the access road to one of the largest freeways in the U.S. in one of the cheapest rent office buildings I have ever seen. I worry about my safety. Shady folks are loitering at all entrances, smoking. (Turns out there is a rehab center in the building. At least that is explained.) Office was ghetto. Fortunately, staff were professional, competant, and nice and the office seemed clean. Turns out I have to have 7--yes, 7!--ceramic fillings replaced. That combined with other issues will run me $400--after insurance!

My car is acting up. I go to the shop. That will run me about $300. Of course they claim there is no problem with my lights. So when I come back for that when it happens again, it'll probably run me another coupla hundred. My extended (read: expensive) warranty won't cover any of this.

I finally make it to work around 1:30. Good news: a coauthor has quickly reponded to my email and has made revisions to a draft I sent her last night at 7 p.m. Bad news: upon looking at said draft, I determine that somehow my 10 hours of work on it yesterday were lost. Worse news: can't find the new draft anywhere. Pending news: asking network admin to look for last night's backup. Worse possible outcome: I worked on the paper for 10 full hours yesterday and never saved it once, OR I somehow saved an older version and lost all my changes.

Now: I am stuck at work with no car and no desire to be here. HELP! GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!

On a positive side, some colleagues tell me trouble comes in 3s and that soon the tide will turn. They, however, have yet to hear the story about the cat vomit.