Attitude Adjustment
We all have bad days. And I don’t mean the days that are just rough days. I mean those days where everything goes wrong. The days that start out with fighting children, spilling coffee and realizing you have no gas in your car. The days that have caused enough damage before lunch that you fear your walk amongst the living. And good for you if you’ve never had a day like that. If you can prove that you shit rainbows and frolic in the field with unicorns, then I might believe that life is perfect for you. But most of have those bad days.
This is not a self help blog, believe it or not, because I think if people could learn from my failures it could be quite a successful self help blog. But it’s not. I am writing this, not to answer any of those bad day blues, but to just say that we have them. And they suck.
Last week, it happened. I went to bed on Sunday night, slept like an angel, probably didn’t snore. Then Monday came, this wasn’t the normal Monday blues, this was a bad day. I forgot to put water in the coffee maker, I spilt a glass of water on the counter, the boys were fighting, the house needed to be cleaned and I was behind on my compilations of to-do lists. By the time I walked out the door I was in a bad mood. I tried to be optimistic. I kept thinking my day will get better, but it didn’t. The boys kept fighting, I forget items on my grocery list, I ran into a door frame. And to top it all off, I didn’t even get a good workout in. At some point, I just gave up or gave in. It was a bad day and tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough. I went to bed hopeful of a better day.
Now this specific bad day actually ended up being a bad few days. This is absolutely not normal. I can have those isolated bad days every so often and maybe they occasionally cycle in with the hormonal cycle. But the next morning was a repeat of the previous morning and it wasn’t like Ground Hog day, where you get to fix the mistakes of yesterday. I was handed a whole unprepared lot of new mistakes and mishaps.
These days are hard to explain. It isn’t necessarily what happens but how it happens. It’s when you just need a restart. No one can judge someone else’s bad day. My bad days hit me hard, things that I enjoy become a challenge. And what really doesn’t make sense, we can have horrible shit happen throughout a day and it doesn’t necessarily make a bad day. Other times it’s just the little things that throw us over the edge. All we really need is a large dose of attitude adjustment or someone to take care of our lives so we can go back to bed and try again later.
When I am having a day I just feel like I need someone to put some happiness into my veins. And that is exactly what happened. I was walking the long way to pick up, listening to a podcast and just pissed off because I’ve had three bad days in a row. A friend drives by, I go to wave and she is rolling down her window. I pull out an ear bud just as she holds up a cupcake and a tub of homemade frosting. She yells, this is for you, find me at pick up. A genuine smile crosses my face and I continue my walk. I took some deep breaths and I noticed the views. When I got to pick up I found my friend. As she handed me the treats I gave her a hug that held a lot more than a thank you. When I got home I ate the cupcake, allowing the sugar to sweeten my mood.
I don’t want to say that sugar is what made me feel better, but it did. But the part that made my mood even sweeter was that someone went out of their way to put a smile on my face. She didn’t do it to cheer me up, she had no idea I was having a bad day. She did it just to do it. She did it to be nice, maybe she was having a great day. That cupcake was enjoyed not only because she is an amazing baker, but because she went out of her way to do something nice for me. At least bad days aren’t so bad when you are around people you like and live in a place that has plenty of pleasantries.
And, I didn’t step in dog poop.