Surly Thursday - Could Be But It's Not

Sorry for the inside joke with myself. Eve's Junior Kindergarten teacher (also Angus's, we all adore her, Catherine M., may her name be praised) when it was time for the kids to get ready for home played an alphabet game where she'd hold up a card with a capital letter on it and the kids would figure out what name it stood for, and if there were multiple kids with that first letter to their name and they guessed wrong, she would say "could be, but it's not", and the child it was would go to their cubby and start getting their coat on etc.

Today was chill. No early band, no school for Eve because she's still sick, just a few errands to run and then a birthday dinner tonight. I went to the library, went to Indigo, went to see a friend who sells skin care products, then was shopping for pajama tank tops in Marks Work Wearhouse when my phone rang. It was my mom.

My mom is a wonderful woman who has given me more than I could possibly describe. She played with my kids with the energy of a teenaged babysitter hopped up on gummy bears and Diet Coke. She looks after my dog when I'm at work and takes her for longer walks than anyone else does. I love and appreciate her. And she is absolute shite in even the most miniscule of crises. Her ability to think critically, problem-solve and talk to anyone as if they are anything other than an idiot who is standing between her and perfect happiness goes straight out the window.

She asked if I was at home and I said no, which was obviously an affront. She barked that my dad was having a problem with the car and needed me to drive him... somewhere. I didn't bother asking for details, just said I would be there in fifteen minutes.

The only thing I had left to do was Starbucks, because Eve only asks for it about once a month and the holiday drinks came out today ("If you're going out and then, inevitably, coming home....?" she said hopefully and I was happy to oblige). I went back to Indigo because there had been no line twenty minutes before. There was now a line. A line with a woman at the front who had multiple questions about whether something was nutty or not, from what I could gather.

I finally got up to the counter and said "is the hot chocolate dairy free?" The girl said something that I just barely registered and then said 'lactose-free milk' so I said yes, (but also whipped cream, because she's lactose-intolerant but come on, whipped cream). I waited and waited and waited, taking deep breaths, and got the drinks. Just as I picked them up, I registered that what she had said was "the mocha powder has a bit of dairy in it". These were MOCHAS. I didn't WANT MOCHAS. I didn't ASK FOR MOCHAS, who the hell goes to Starbucks for COFFEE?? (oh wait)  But I also didn't catch it and say "oh no, I don't want mocha powder", so also my fault.

I wasn't getting back into the line and the crowd in the Indigo Starbucks was stressing me out, so I went to the car and drove home and the Starbucks drive-thru was blessedly empty, so I picked up a second hot chocolate for Eve, feeling like a bougie-ass loser, but whatever. I dropped it off at home and picked up my dad. It turns out the only problem was that the shuttle hadn't picked him up to pick up his car, so I dropped him off at the dealership ten minutes away and that was that.

So. Eve got her grande gingerbread white hot chocolate no-coffee, lactose-free milk, whipped cream, and my dad got his car, and I got my errands done (some of them twice!) and my mom never got adequately treated for her anxiety and it comes out like belligerence which sometimes I can roll with and sometimes I can't - today I could!

So Thursday went a tiny bit off the rails and yet Surliness Level = Zero.