Monday, Monday...

Well, you can tell it’s a Monday. And today calls for some chocolate therapy.

Because we live so far from where I work I drive in once a week and room with a lady from church Mon-Thurs. We live in Oak Harbor, Ohio – near Toledo. I work in Akron, Ohio—120 miles away. Rick is driving truck now and he’s gone all week long, too. My alarm went off at its usual time – 5:00 am – and instead of hitting snooze, I turned it off! I woke up again at 5:50 (I’m supposed to be pulling out of the driveway at 6:00) and I still had to shower, dress, pack my clothes and pack my food. We just had too much going on this weekend and I didn’t get any of my pre-trip done yesterday.

I did take the time Sunday night to make my lunch. (Usually I don’t) As I was packing my cooler I managed to remember not to pack the lunch away but keep it separate. I thought as I took it out of the fridge, put this in your lunch bag now and put that by your purse or you’ll forget it, but I was in panic mode and focused instead on packing the cooler and getting it out of the way. Half way to work (an hour down the road) I noticed I didn’t have my lunch bag on the front seat with me. I wondered if it had been tossed in the back by accident – then that sinking feeling filled my stomach! I left it sitting on top of the fridge. A salad, Spanish Rice and a hard boiled egg! Oh yuck!

Now, if I were living a normal life and driving a normal commute it would be no big deal. However, I’m not home for a week, and Rick is gone for the week as well. That food is going to be quite aromatic by the time I get home and Rick has a very sensitive sense of smell. Oh horrors!

I called some friends – John and Carol – who live nearby and asked, if I sent a copy of my key would someone go over there, throw the lunch out in the dumpster, open up the windows and freshen the apartment for a bit? In between his laughter John said no problem.

Then, just because I was so late leaving this morning it started to rain when I got to the turnpike and I was delayed even more. Luckily I didn’t have any pressing work this morning, but, still, it’s not cool to show up late on a Monday morning. As I went out at lunch to get a copy of the key made to send to my friends – I couldn’t find my car keys! That’s the only set we have (even if Rick had a set – he was on his way to Plano, IL) and I know I had it in my hands when I got out of the car. But I had to get something out of the back seat to take in to work and guessed I had dropped the keys there by mistake. As I left for the parking lot at lunch I stopped at security and told them what happened. They dispatched one of the officers to help me open my car. Once I got to the car I tried to see if I could find my keys in the back seat anywhere. Nope. I checked my purse one more time (even though I’d gone through it all at my desk when I discovered I had no keys) and found them! I suspect that in my distraction I put them in the wrong place and they fell into a corner that I didn’t reach into when I looked earlier. Whew! Crisis averted!

This isn’t the worst Monday that could have happened, but it’s not one I want to repeat again. Like I said, chocolate therapy. A big, 2” brownie with frosting, walnuts and caramel. Yum! (I’ll be walking all week long to work that one off.)

How was your Monday morning?