Layers of Crap

Yesterday was a bad day. A very bad day. It wasn't just one thing, or even two things that were bad. It was layer upon layer of crappy things that built up to make one big crappy pile of a day.

First I would like to clarify that I would normally characterize myself as a happy person, somewhat of an optimist, willing to see the positive in most things. I generally see the cup as half full. Except for when I am hot. Then, everything in the world is so much worse. I am sad, everything seems overwhelming and futile, and I don't care how full the cup is because it doesn't change that fact that I am hot.

Yesterday it was 90 degrees here. Which some of you might think isn't all that hot, but to me 90 is hot, much too hot for April 7. In fact, in the midst of my heat depression, I weather.comed Phoenix to make me feel better. Because, even though those smug tan Arizonians in Phoenix are always bragging about how perfectly 70 degrees it is during the winter time ("oh, it's Christmas and I am outside wearing shorts!"), it just makes me feel better knowing that they have to live in the heat of hell during the summers. Surely it is hotter in Phoenix than it is here. Nope. It was a perfect 72 degrees. Smug Arizonians.

To make the heat worse, like 1000 times worse, our AC is broken, again, for the sixth time this year. Frustrating. . . and hot. Our upstairs was a nice and toasty 85 degrees.

You know what is worse that a hot house? Putting jeans on in a hot house. And you know what is worse than that? Putting freshly laundered jeans on, when they have shrunken down to their actual size, so they are too tight. Too tight because I still am chubby with baby weight and I may or may not have pigged out on cookies the day before (and the day before that). Because it has been hot and I have been in a heat-induced depression so I turn to the only comfort that I have. . . no-bake cookies and Swedish fish.

So there I was, wearing pants that were tight, doing squats to stretch them out, hating the world more and more every constraining step I took (I really hate wearing tight pants)and did I mention I was hot? I was seriously near tears. And it was only ten in the morning.

By eleven I was on the road, kids in tow, on our way to Costco to get some much needed supplies. This is when I get the phone call that puts me in tears, just not right at that moment. I waited until I was standing in the middle of Costco before I randomly burst into tears. The phone call was Cody informing me that the owners of our house had scheduled a showing for that day at four o'clock. Super major bummer. I am not the type that keeps the entire house spotless at any random time. I am the type that has messy closets. So I completed my shopping, hurried home, made a mad sprint-dash clean of the house, shouting at my kids "don't make a mess, don't make a mess" all the while. Plus, it was a very, very hot house. No a/c. So I was a little grouchy.

At one point, I had put random things in a box to be taken upstairs. Claire and Morgan come downstairs and decide to dump the box out and spread all that stuff around again. When I saw it, all the layers of crap came to their culmination and it all hit the fan. I stomped and yelled, threw a major mommy fit, and put those kids squarely in time out. Usually when I put the kids in time out, they whine and cry all the way there. I was so monstrous that I think I scared the crap out of them. They both went and sat in their respective time out without saying a word. Morgan just sat there looking at me with wide eyes, a bit shell-shocked.

Anyways, after four hours of cleaning, mopping, lifting heavy things up into the attic, a very sweaty and grouchy me loaded up the girls and Luke into the van to hang out at McDonald's to wait out the showing. About a half an hour later, Cody calls me to inform me that nobody was coming. They took too long looking at other houses and decided to reschedule our showing. Blech!

I complained about 400 times yesterday that I was hot. Cody finally said to me, "You know, I don't think you could have cut it as a pioneer."

Of course I could have cut it as a pioneer. I just would have complained a lot.

Some things I feel need some clarification:
* I don't think Arizonians are smug. Okay, maybe a little during the winter.

* I don't think it's okay to throw mommy temper tantrums and yell at my kids. I apologized to them for overreacting, but they still had to sit in time out for dumping the box out.

* I don't like being hot.