A dirty diaper under the seat of her SUV. That was the cherry on top. If Baskin Robbins made a crappy day Sundae, she would have earned one today.
____________
The day started off on the wrong foot, and the rug was pulled out from underneath her the rest of the day.
Her alarm went off at the usual time, but instead of hitting snooze for a crucial extra 10 minutes of sleep, she turned it off and awoke when the phone started ringing. The day care was calling to see if she would be bringing her son in today. They reminded her that if she wasn’t, she still had to pay for the day anyway. She said she was running late and would be there soon.
Her son was fussy and tempremental from the moment they walked out of the house. He continued screaming and throwing a tantrum until she walked out of the daycare center.
She arrived late for work and late for the staff meeting. The one she was in charge of….. The topic of the meeting……staff tardiness.
After being berated by her supervisor, she tried to make the best of the workday by breaking a heel in a manhole cover during lunch and dropping her smartphone onto the concrete in the process, breaking the screen.
She returned to the office almost in tears.
Her ever so caring boss requested that she either pull herself together or go home. She cursed under her breath at him and chose to go home.
“I heard that.” he said as she walked out of his office.
She got into her Suv and headed for home. She didn’t have to pick up her son for a few hours, she thought a nap would be in order.
That plan was railroaded by the fender bender that occured on the on ramp to the freeway….2 cars in front of her. As she was waiting (for an hour) for the incident to clear up along with the path to the freeway, she began to gain a whiff of an overpowering aroma….
SNIFF SNIFF
“What is that horrid smell?” she said to herself
She looked over her shoulder into the back seat and caught a glimpse of a diaper wrapped up and sitting on the floorboard.
The proverbial kettle hath boiled over….
She screamed in the enclosed space of her vehicle.
“AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!” and slammed her fists on the steering wheel.
When the traffic jam cleared she headed straight for a car wash to clean out her SUV. She screached to a halt in the vacuum stall, opened all the doors and started cleaning with a rage.
“Dirty diapers? Seriously….WTF? Candy wrappers freaking happy meal toys crayons, this is disgusting!! How did I let it get this bad??” she screamed mentally at herself.
She dug inbetween the seats to make sure she got everything and pulled out an unmarked CD.
“Where the hell did this come from?” she said as she placed it on the dash and began to use the supervacuum.
Satisfied with the cleaning but not any less angry, she slammed the other 3 doors and got into the drivers seat, turned on the ignition and slammed her door as well.
She sat there for a minute, let out a large exhale, unclenched her fists and looked at the CD on her dash.
She didn’t recognize it. No writing on it. Kind of scratched. She shrugged her shoulders and popped it into the player.
She saw TRACK 1 displayed on the console.
The song began to replace the angered silence.
It began with a simple yet catchy blues riff on the guitar. The calmness of the guitar strings strummed slowly. Then the voice took all the anger away.
She laid her head back on the headrest, closed her eyes and smiled a relaxed smile.
The turnaround had begun.
She was taken back to the first time she heard this particular song. It wasn’t the lyrics that took her back…it was the melodies of the instuments and the sweetness of the singing.
She was reminded of the past when she couldn’t wait to be a Mother, a working independent Mother. Ready to take on the world and its problems.
It reminded her that life may have its difficulties but the end results were worth the hardships.
So she had a bad day…Tomorrow is another day. But for the rest of this day she will spend with her favorite fussy little man and know that she has been blessed with a great life.
As the track finished, she put the vehicle in drive and headed for the day car center.
And played the song again, this time she enthusiastically sang along.
Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal.
Thank you!