Melonade

Last night I went to Barnes and Noble for a little frappucino, atmosphere, and writing. It was supposed to rain last night (I don’t think it ever got around to where I was), and one of the best places to enjoy a storm is through the huge windows in the BN café. Things were looking good; my favorite coffee maker whipped up a nice java chip frap with extreme carmel sauce (He denied trying to kill me with carmel). *Note* I’m not sure if the technical term here should be “carmel” or “caramel”, so I’m sticking with my first choice even if it’s wrong.

Not only did I get a yummy drink, but I also got an invitation to breakfast. This is unusual because the day before I had almost asked him to have breakfast with me. While we have been known to share lunch, dinner, and sno-cones, we rarely make breakfast plans together. I held back my invitation because his Thursday plans included sleeping late. But I felt like the universe was making up for things when he proposed Friday breakfast. The only catch: meeting at 6:30 a.m. I agreed, and he promised all sorts of horrible things if I didn’t show up.

So, good things so far. My favorite corner table was empty. I settled down with frap, iBook, and notes to write. I had to decline a dinner invitation from aforementioned coffee maker because a) I’d had a massive lunch and planned on making coffee my entire evening meal, and b) I was short on cash. But no matter, I plunged back into the writing and wrote a couple of new pages that I will soon send to my favorite Loraine for her words of wisdom. I went home that night anticipating today.

Five a.m. comes sooner than I would like, but I got ready by six. While getting dressed, I had the nagging feeling that he might try to get out of the meeting. It’s been known to happen before. I searched for my phone in the dark so I wouldn’t wake up my sister, and I finally found it where it had fallen out of my bag.

I really hate when people leave their ringers turned on in BN. I don't like listening to the same annoying ringtone from seven different loud people. I have a policy of always turning off my phone while I'm in the store. When I left, I was so set on getting home and getting to sleep, I forgot to turn my ringer back on. This morning my phone showed five missed calls, all from the same person, but no notification of new voicemail.

So I sat on my bed at 6:05 and debated. He could have called to cancel, but surely he would have left a message when I didn’t answer. Since there was no apparent message, he could have called just to tell stories, or just because he was bored on his way home, or because he wanted to see if he could come over and play football on the Playstation. All of these things happen on a regular basis.

I tried calling him. He didn’t answer. Debate number two: Did he turn his phone on silent to avoid answering, or was he in the shower, or was he just ignoring for no reason? I waited a little while and tried again. Still no answer.

I drove to Jimmy’s Egg. It was all of 6:15. I sat in front of the glass doors and waited. I finished a Sudoku I’d started the night before at BN during a writing break. I watched several old men walk inside. I called again.

For reasons I don’t fully understand or agree with, this has been an extremely horomonally-driven week for me, and so by this morning, I was at the point where being stood up for breakfast by a person who changes his mind more than his socks will almost make me cry. Almost.

By 6:45, I was at my office, Egg McMuffin bag in one hand, laptop bag in the other. I don’t have to be at work until 8, but I decided to make the most of it. I could charge up my laptop battery and do a little work before the phones started ringing.

Something made me turn off my phone and turn it back on. What was the first thing I saw? New voicemail notification. And the nice voicemail voice told me that I had five new messages. Some of them were days old. I don’t know why I haven’t been getting messages this week. The last was the one I was expecting: breakfast cancelled at 9:45 the night before. But it was too late. I was already disappointed.

And if that wasn’t enough, when I started up my office computer, I was confronted by the Blue Screen of Death. Error messages all over the place. I restart as instructed. Same Blue Screen. I wait awhile and then give it one more shot, but that stupid blue screen just pops back up. I’m pretty sure it was laughing at me.The universe had not been kind to me; instead it had made me wake up early and eat cheap breakfast at my desk in front of a blue screen.

It took the tech guy over an hour to get it running again, and even now I have to be careful about what I do. He says it needs more work. I got a new hard drive a week ago, and I’ve had nothing but problems since then.

My would-be breakfast friend doesn’t understand why I was mad about the morning, and there’s really no way I can make him. He’ll just think I’m irrational. He’s probably right, but that’s not really the point. Plans were made and I was looking forward to them. He told me not to have a bad attitude about the rest of the day. It’s the only reasonable thing I heard all morning.

Things are better now. Lunch was very productive. The office is quiet this afternoon. I’ve put in lots of overtime this week, and in a few hours I’ll be back at BN writing. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Enjoy your day.