Saturday's child has to work for his living...

...but the child that was born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blythe, good and gay. (Anon.)

That Anon. sure has written a lot!

Today marks the first Saturday I've had off in a squillion years! Because even when I went to DC for the Book Festival in September, that was "work related." Yes, listening to Diane Ackerman, author of The zookeeper's wife speak, was work! I love my job!

But today I am going on a day long retreat. And lemme tell you, the woman who has no vacation time is working Mondays for a month (a few hours here, a few hours there, etc.) to have today off. [Venting is an important part of good mental health, and I've had to get that off my chest for a month now.] [Because I know there will be people tomorrow at church who didn't go and they'll say, oh, {insert excuse here.} And now that I've vented to you, dear internets, I will just smile sweetly.]

And if ever there was someone who needed a day of rest and retreat and to be driven in someone else's car, it would be this chick, the chick who

• Yesterday morning met with the husband of the woman who hit my car's passenger door. He'll pay for it, I just have to go around and get two estimates. My father says, get three, get one from a shop your insurance works with.
  
• Spoke with my insurance company twice--I'm really getting to know them well. I loved it when they called me and didn't say, "Can you talk" (which I generally say to folks) as I was at the children's reference desk, and yes, did want to talk, but had to get another librarian when the children's reference desk phone started ringing.
  

And I can hear you, gee, that's rough, but hey, that's life.

No, no, there's more!!

I left my lights on (this car doesn't have a ding ding reminder like my old car, Melody, may she rest in peace). Yes, and I didn't go out to lunch. (Can you see where this is going?) My car, when I unlocked the passenger side (remember the driver side door is caput?) had no door light. Um, that's odd. I don't even crawl in completely, turn the key, NOTHING.

Yes, my battery was dead. Dead as a doornail. (Where did that expression come from?)

Another librarian was leaving at the same time and bless her she had bumper cables. But it didn't work, either we had no idea what we were doing or my battery was really dead. But AAA came pretty quickly after I called them. It was a miracle when Lucy returned to life. I will have to reset the clock and (huh?) all the radio stations, BUT WHO CARES? I didn't need a tow, and that was golden, esp. since the guy didn't show up in a tow truck.

Then I went over to Auto Advantage, because I'd been smelling an oil smell. The guy there said, geesh, you need a new oil gasket cover. Which is so much better news than he could have given me.

(You got that, right? This all happened on FRIDAY.)

I then went to the Etna Pizza Hut, which has notoriously slow and inefficient service. But since I'd ordered my pizza at 6:15 and it was now almost 7:30, I knew mine was one of the ones in the case, if only I could get someone to help me????

I made conversation with the guy next to me, who hadn't ordered yet. (In situations like this, it helps make me less stressed if I can talk about anything else, even football.)

There was a "GO STEELERS" sign that had Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Kaufmanns as the two advertisers. Um, Kaufmanns is no longer. So you know that's gotta be an old sign. (This is an example of small talk.)

When finally I got my pizza and a bottle of water, I sat right down on one of their benches and ate a piece and took my dinner meds. Ah, much better. I even offered Mr. Who-now-had-ordered a piece. He declined. I was serious, but hey, more for me.

Then I made sure my box was tightly shut (I've had the experience of a not tightly shut box and making a turn and the pizza went all over the car floor.) This day had had enough drama, spilled pizza was NOT going to be a part of it.

Oh, then I realized I needed gas. So I drove home, knowing that my nearest to home Sunoco usually has the highest prices. I gaped when I saw the LOW LOW price of $3.07 per gallon. WHEN DID THREE DOLLARS AND SEVEN CENTS BECOME A LOW PRICE??? But hey, I was EXPECTING $3.11, so it was the first pure good news of that hour. (We were still in the 7 o'clock hour.) I filled my tank, and guess how much?

I'll tell you. My 13+ gallon tank fill-'er-up cost me FORTY BUCKS!! I did NOT print a reciept, thankyouverymuch.

But hey, the gas tank is on the same side as Melody, that is a good thing.

Did I mention that my sweet man of a boyfriend gave me keys to his apartment? So with my pizza in hand, I did NOT climb up to my third floor walk up. I opened his apartment, which was warm, and sat at the cleaned off table (because his mom was just here) and while eating my pizza (which was still warm) I read from a Calvin and Hobbes collection he had lying there.

Then, because we never spend time in his apartment, I looked at his books (mostly textbooks) and music (mostly classical).

I did not, I repeat not, lick his spoons (the link will take you to a vintage Friends episode, "The one where Joey moves out.")

Then I came upstairs, discovered that the one moment my phone was NOT in my hip pocket, my mom called (the phone was on "vibrate" all day) so we shopped online a bit, since she knows if I don't like something I won't wear it. We looked at nightgowns and slippers.

Also, she told me how proud she was of me. Which was nicer than Kelly, who said, you must win the prize for girl with the worst car luck in one week. (Although it is true.) (What do I win?) (Is it chocolate or cash? Cuz I'll take either.)

Off to ready myself for a retreat. Tomorrow I'll take a walk, I wrote it on the calendar.