The Querulous Day

You know how sometimes you plan something that you think is going to be awesome and it ends up setting an entirely different tone for the day? That happened today. I made up a "Word of the Day" list back in January. Today's word of the day happened to be "querulous", meaning argumentative, whiny, complaining, fretful. (See: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/querulous) I don't know if this being the word of the day today was a crazy coincidence, but the entire day was full of argument, unrest, and whining children of all ages. By 11:00, I was ready to head home. I was exhausted mentally. I can only be called a racist so many times before I'm ready to cry. I can only tolerate so much obscenity before I want to scream back. I can only handle so much anger, hate, and distrust before I want to go back home and start the day over again. Today I wanted to do all three. It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. (I think Judith Viorst is awesome for writing that book.) Some days I really love my job. Today was not one of them. My querulous students came and left, only to leave me facing querulous co-workers. I am ready to head back tomorrow and start fresh. THAT'S what I love about my job. Each day is a fresh, new start. Everyone who works there thinks that way, including the kids. It's a comforting idea.

My unceasingly-thoughtful spouse took Addison to the park after dinner so that I could get some Wii Fit time in. I managed about 30 minutes of exercise and felt much more relaxed. I also made a cinnamon crumb cake that we will be sharing with Patrick when he joins us tomorrow for dinner.

Here's to the end of another Monday. May Tuesday be far more productive and pleasant for us all.