All I can do right now is hope that today turns out to be nothing like yesterday.
Which was, simply, a shit show from start to finish.
The entire day was spent waiting for the Aliant people to come and install fiber op cable.
Me sitting at the kitchen table, marking papers (a loosely defined word I'll discuss in more detail momentarily) looking every time a car came around the corner of our little U-shaped slice of the world.
Hoping each and every time that the vehicle shattering the peace and quiet of the day was the Aliant van carrying inside it the Aliant person who would install our fiber op internet and release me from the confining quarters of the kitchen table.
How come the kitchen table, you ask?
What was preventing me from sitting upstairs at the computer which would have made for a less stymied and stunted day?
Frankie.
Because our little Frankie does not like the introduction of new people into our humble abode.
Meaning I needed to see the Aliant van at the same time he did in order to get him inside his Frankie hut before they, yes, Tikka in tow, reached the front door and were treated to a full blown Frankie meltdown.
Hence the sitting at the table.
Thinking that I'd spend the day marking crime and popular films papers while I waited, making the day at least productive in some ways if not in others.
I hadn't accounted for an additional intrusion.
One I couldn't have accounted for simply because it wasn't within my range of experience, as I don't often work at the kitchen table during the day.
Apparently, Dibley and Jasper enjoy my company during the day, when they are all full of desire for love and attention from me, whether I have anything to do or not.
I never realized that they were brimming with such affections.
And it explains how come Jasper would rather bounce off the walls during the evening than sit in my lap for a cuddle.
Regardless, they were determined that I was going to get as little work as possible completed.
And given that I marked one full paper, and two pages of another, I'd say they were pretty successful in their mission to render me ineffective.
In addition to Jasper's insistence on lying against me, his back to my belly, head resting in the crook of my elbow, purring louder than a freight train and periodically lifting his head to request a "nudge," Dibley laid directly in front of Jasper, on top of my papers, also purring but not so much in the mood for the exchanging of physical affections.
Stephen was taking the pictures.
Because if I couldn't mark papers, I certainly wasn't in any position to take pictures.
Moving them was futile.
Because they would just slide back into their default positions, looking at me as if to say I'd lost my mind as they weren't going anywhere.
And clearly they weren't.
I did manage to wrestle free my arm and get the camera from Stephen, giving me the opportunity to take a bit more of an up close and personal of my two little intruders.
Which did nothing to encourage them to consider shifting positions.
And of course Frankie wasn't at all pleased with the turn of events.
Not able to actually get on the table, he has to make his presence known in other ways.
Pawing.
Always a pleasure.
And he is so good at it.
Luckily, Tikka was content to lay on the floor, happy in the knowledge that I was at home, in the kitchen, and not at work, in my office or classroom, far away from her.
We've been working together for a long time.
She knows my routines.
And she doesn't like having her picture take.
Even after all this time.
In addition to waiting for the Aliant person, I was also on pins and needles because I needed to get to my office to complete a SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) letter of appraisal for a former student who was applying for funding during her doctoral research.
I'm not sure of the actual amount, but it's somewhere around $20,000 dollars.
A lot of money to be sure.
And after reading her proposal, I couldn't think of anyone more deserving.
But she wasn't going to get it if my letter didn't get to her, in southern Ontario by Tuesday morning.
Just when I thought I was starting to become more organized.
Further, these letters are not the kind of letters you could write on letterhead, at your leisure.
There are letters that have to be written and submitted on a specific form, in a specific font, each letter the exact same size as all of the other letters submitted with all of the other applications.
SSHRC is nothing if not organized and perhaps a bit anal.
By 3.30 I couldn't stand the waiting any longer, so I called Aliant, only to be told that my appointment had been changed to the following Friday.
You can imagine what resulted from hearing that.
To say I wasn't pleased is to say that the Titanic took on a little water.
And when I was finished doing what I needed to do to ensure Aliant was well aware of how I felt about their shoddy operation, I left the house, gulping the outside air like a child locked in the house for a week with an illness.
Once I had my fill of nerve calming fresh air, I headed for the high school to get Em.
Next stop, Starbucks for a coffee that was needed if I was to get a well written letter completed at lightening speed.
Nonetheless, it was still 7.30 pm when I arrived home, Em in tow, bearing Subway for my love, an apology for not being home when he arrived, for being cranky and miserable to him when we spoke on the phone, and mostly for being the reason we missed the play we had planned on attending.
At least I was able to get the letter out with a guarantee that it would be where it needed to be by Tuesday morning.
And as I was leaving the postal area located in Shopper's Drug Mart, I noticed a 2 for $10.00 discount dvd bin which held inside it a copy of the original 1969 copy of The Italian Job with Michael Caine and Noel Howard.
A much deserved treat for living through a frenetic and frantic day.
Title Lyric: Waiting for Someone by Jann Arden
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