Jonathan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (start to the) Day!

You know that feeling when you roll out of bed and your hair is in a tuffle, you have your hoodie and pj's on and you stumble into the kitchen feeling like a million dollars (and looking more like an IOU)? I started that way and was greeted in the kitchen with tears ;-( Sometimes we have those. Well, we made it through that.

Then I was on a mission to locate the perfect gift for my sister's boyfriend. I had ordered him a sweet Boston Red Sox number and when it came in the mail and I opened it a few days before Christmas I found that they sent me a Brooklyn Dodgers piece instead. So I called to figure out how to return it and asked to re-order it. A few days later, it comes in the mail and guess what it is... yep... Brooklyn Dodgers! So I go onto the website to order again. They no longer carry the Red Sox item! So here I am two days before giving him a gift of nothing having thought that I had figured out the perfect gift for him and instead I had two empty hands full of nothing but good intentions. So the mission was on. I had to find this new item. I called here. I called there. I called every possible place I could think of that might possibly have what I wanted to get him. Apparently no one in the Milwaukee area has them. New idea. I know what I'll get... I just have to run out and get it.

Before I go, I call our local Family Video Store. Elizabeth and I had wanted to bring a Wii to our Christmas gathering tomorrow. I was a bit skeptical that they would have one to rent on New Years Eve. But I called and to my great delight... they have just one! I let the guy know that I'll be there in a little while and he asks for my name and phone number so he can check my account. Good as gold. I go take a shower and head over to Family Video full of glee at the thoughts of the fun we will have tomorrow with the fam. I will be the Hero of life itself at the family party!

As I get out of the car in the Family Video parking lot, I see a mother and her son walking out of the store and getting into their full-size van. She has, in her hand, a black case and he has, in his, a plastic bag full of DVD-box-sized items. I got a sinking feeling in my tummy. I approach the counter and tell the kind gentleman that I called a little while ago about renting their Wii. He immediately gets a sheepish look on his face as he says that it was rented and the woman had literally just walked out the door. He said he didn't know that I wanted it held. Ughhhhhh. I asked if any of the other stores had any and he begins to get a look of hope and starts flying his fingers across the keyboard and he wanders over to the phone to call Waukesha. He comes back. Theirs are both due back tomorrow. My heart sinks. I say thanks anyway and wander out to the car with a bit of a somber mood. I even think to myself, pull it together man, this is a video game system! So I go on about my business figuring I can stop at other places along the way in case they might have a stray Wii laying around. Blockbuster... doesn't rent them. Hollywood Video... doesn't rent them. GameStop... doesn't rent them. Oh well. I'll just grab a coffee and go grab the present I am out to get.

I get to my coffee place and order a depth charge. "Would you like room for cream?" Yes please. He hands the nearly full cup of coffee to the barista and says I think I over filled it and he would like room for cream. Up comes my Depth Charge. I go to the mixing station to put in some half and half. I open up the cup and it is literally level with the brim of the cup. I think to myself, well maybe I can just put a touch in there. I do. As I put the cover back on I realize that the coffee is actually visible through the thin white plastic cover of the cup. It is rising above the level of the cup itself and is almost half the way up the plastic cover! I get to my car and think to myself... I know this is going to be trouble. So as I drive off, the coffee splooshes around in the cup with random eruptions of piping hot coffee shooting up into the air as I proceed to my next destination. When I get there, I carefully pick up the coffee and realize what I already knew... the white plastic covers are not meant to contain the coffee, they are only lids for the cups. So as I walked around with my coffee in hand there was intermittent dripping until the level of the coffee was below the level of the lid and was contained solely by the cup. Nothing like licking your fingers all around the mall (no I was not mallwalking... I was shopping!).

Oh the joys of New Year's Eve!

Wii wish you a merry Christmas
Wii wish you a merry Christmas
Wii wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy New Years Family extravaganza!


But here is the bright side, my parents are coming down and I am going to get to have dinner with the whole fam. Then we get to spend the day together tommorrow. Honestly, Who needs a Wii?!?!

So onward wii go to a full day of family fun. Now that is what I call
Living the dream!