The day is nearly over. THANK GOD!!

I know you all have had one of "those" days yourselves. I have had a few before myself. That said, today was one of those days I wanted to reboot the universe by noon and start over.

It started this morning when I got up an hour later than I usually do. As such, the child was also running behind time. It made DW run behind time because I had to sign some sheets for the clinic she was headed to but needed to speak to her about it first. With all of that going on, I forgot to send the daily morning report that my boss expects every weekday before 8:30AM. I gather up my stuff, head to the door, head back upstairs to grab my bluetooth headset that I forgot upstairs, grab the shoehorn and promptly break the handle on it. TC and I head off to the Roo, jump in and head off. I drop her at summer school a few minutes late and off to work. Oh, did I mention that I dropped the bagel and cream cheese on the way to the driver's door? That is why she puts my breakfast in sandwich bags now because I always end up dropping it.

I continue to work and, while Denison gets busy around Kennedy, I have never had a 15-20 minute delay getting through that intersection. This morning, there was no construction, no accident, no broken down vehicle, but TONS of traffic. I get through that, find a cherry parking spot despite my delay (it's now after 9:30AM) , get out to grab my laptop and then it hits me: my lanyard with security pass and security tokens are sitting on my desk in the office at home. Ok, you win. I am going home. I email my team on the crackberry that I will work from home because the universe is against me this morning and I head back home. The ride is uneventful. I knew it would not last.

I get in the driveway, head inside, take off my shoes, head upstairs, pick up my lanyard and sit down to log into the laptop for work.... which was sitting on the backseat of the truck in the driveway. F**K!! Ok, back downstairs, back into shoes, back outside, back to the truck. Let's try it again, shall we? Ok, so back in the office, just in time for the daily conference call. For the second day in the row, my partner has a case of diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. I correct him not once, not twice, but THREE times on an unimportant item he seems intent on trying to get his wrong ass right on. I'm on call so it's on to tickets and other wonderful items. nothing special here except for small annoyances. It takes me into lunch time where I catch the news on the PVR machine as I work, chat with some folks on MSN (including Hammy in Singapore, where he is not having a great experience unfortunately) and desperately try to go out for lunch as I have a craving for Chinese. I keep getting updates and calls on tickets so my luck continues. I finally get to break away and head off quickly to get back in time for the conf call.

First stop was the bank to get some money. My workmates and I have a lottery pool and we finally agreed on what to do with our meager wininngs (four consecutive and equal ticket buys) so I needed money out for that. I then went to pick up my combo plate at Mind-Du (if I had time, the adult lunch buffet price is the same as the plate). I got in the truck and headed off to get the ticket. When I got out of the truck, I could nto find my wallet. I was wearing shorts without pockets so it was tucked into my waistband. I know I had it at Ming-Du so after I tossed the truck (and found the cap for my 8GB flash drive after months missing it), I raced back to see if I left it on the counter or, by some miracle, in the parking space I was previously parked in.

I got back into the same spot and saw a woman on the phone standing strangely at the back of her car watching me as I drove in. I ran into Ming-Du and they had not seen it and did not have it. The woman had just gotten into her car but still glanced at me. Now, normally I would chalk it up to the old societal issues (i.e. large black man, frail white woman) but something was different. I walked up to her car window and knocked on it, hoping she did not drive over my foot on her rush to leave. Instead, thankfully, she winds down the window as I ask her if she saw a wallet in the spot I now occupy. She hesitates but says she did find a wallet. I tell her it is mine and that I rushed back hoping to find it. She informs me that she already called Durham Police about it and they told her to drop it off at the station at Brock and Hwy 2 in Pickering. I tell her I can prove it is mine. She says she has to call them and ask. I understand and tell her to make the call. As she is speaking to the police, I tell her I can get proof from the truck, thinking about my insurance slip, and proceed to go to the passenger door I had opened earlier. And the universe intervenes again.

I reach for my keys in my non-existent pockets. No keys. Where did I put them? I know before I look through the windshield that they will be sitting on the seat or in the ignition. My head drops and my heart sinks. The Roo has a sophisticated alarm system that locks itself automatically after a period of time. I was sure I was now super screwed and would have to either call DW or taxi it home and back with the spare set. The universe was just f**king with me this time though as I had left the door partially open so it did not set the alarm and lock the doors. I breathed a sigh of relief and got the keys and the documents out. I showed it to the lady, told her where to find my driver's license, and she compared the two and verified to the police that it all checked out so they gave her the okay to give me back my wallet. I thanked her many times, saving me from an expensive lesson and giving the day a bit of a better path. I explained to her the day thus far and she agreed it did not start very well. She went off to the bank and I stood by the truck trying to figure out "why me?"

I started to drive off but I could not leave and not give her something. Good Samaritans too often are neither properly recognized nor rewarded, regardless if they want it or not. The lady had gone off to the bank. I wrote a thank you note on a napkin (saying it was hard to find good people around), wrapped a ten spot inside it (telling her to please have lunch on me), and placed it under her driver side wiper. I waited in another section of the lot to ensure no one else took it from the car. I finally parked near the convenience store that I had decided earlier was too much trouble to enter to buy tickets and bought my group's ticket there (plus a couple of tech mags). I then headed back home, picked up mail on the way in, and settled in for a tasty lunch, a conference call (during which DW had to call the school to let TC know I was picking her up) and the hope the universe was done with me for the day.

I headed out to pick up TC just after 3PM anxiously hoping that the Good Samaritan had stopped the bulldozer that was my luck streak, and picked her up, returning without incident. I think I can truly say, all is back to normal.

Whatever that is.

Ciao.