Frustration

If frustration could be rated by awful ice cream flavors, today was broken glass in vomit flavor; dog vomit after said dog had eaten its own poo. If frustration was a serial killer, today was Hannibal Lecter being raped by Ted Bundy.

It didn’t help that the day started off with disappointing news. And then things just began to pile up, like all of those cars I passed on the walk home locked up in stop; all of those people willingly ignoring their responsibility for the melting ice caps.

Know what else didn’t help? The Zen mantra voice, telling me that I am the perceiver, meaning that I’m the one perceiving the day as frustrating, that didn’t help.

If frustration were a voice, it would be my prissy, Zen mantra voice.

Oh, and coworkers who willingly neglect the work they’re supposed to do which conveniently leaves it to me to take care of tomorrow? Yup, another glass and dog vomit sundae.

But sitting here at home, downing my Brother Thelonius Belgian style ale from North Coast Brewery and listening the Riley make his little monkey chirps, well it’s a little easier to shrug it off.

And talking to Greta May for about five minutes at the end of the work day made it seem not that bad. There was that easy give and take that made us feel as close as cousins, thick as thieves. She was tired, I was tired, I could hear it in our voices. But we were okay; we were golden.

I knew it was okay when I was crossing the street, coming back from the store with Riley strapped to my chest in a sling, and some hyper aggressive freak tried to run me down in the crosswalk. Their enormous, bright yellow (because the sheer size of the vehicle wasn’t attention grabbing enough) truck blocked off a busy lane of traffic while I insisted on taking my pedestrian’s right of way. This lady then felt it necessary to flip me, my wife, and my two week old son the bird. Where normally, after a day of frustration building like magma below a volcano’s peak, I would have felt the need to scream obscenities until I ran out of breath, I just slowly shook my head and rubbed my sons back.

I’m looking at you Tomorrow, let’s make it better.