Moody Monday on a Tuesday

 

I am on the struggle bus this morning in a major way. It’s freezing in the office—I’ve got my heater on, a blanket wrapped around me, and I’m still shivering. My hands feel like icicles. This morning, I woke up to an unexpected snowfall and a wind chill of -3. Fantastic.

I’m in a funk, and while I’m trying not to let it get to me, it’s been tough. First and foremost, Bailey bit someone. Again. Dennis has been working with him, walking him every day, and he was making so much progress. I even got him a little leash sign that says, “Reactive Dog – Please Do Not Approach.” Apparently, no one reads it.

Dennis said he had his back turned and didn’t hear an older lady walk up to pet Bailey. Bai was like, “NOPE,” and grabbed her hand. She didn’t ask for his name, shot records, or anything—she just left the park after Dennis apologized profusely. Poor Bai knew he messed up; he was mopey the rest of the day and didn’t even ask for a walk the next morning. But now he’s back to begging for his walks, and I’ve decided: no more. I just can’t risk anything happening.

He’s confused and upset, which makes me feel awful, but this is the fourth person he’s bitten. I think we have to accept that he’ll need to get his exercise in the backyard from now on. It breaks my heart because he loves his walkies. All three of us—me, Dennis, and Bailey—were pretty upset about it.

On top of all that, the girls’ trip to Dallas is next week, and I’m starting to second-guess my decisions there too. Three adult women in one hotel room? Not fun. Brooke and Linda have never even met, so that’s going to be… interesting. Brooke has at least helped with some of the planning, but Linda? She’s done absolutely nothing—and she’s local!

Yesterday, I gave up on the hotel idea and rented an Airbnb. I sent the address to both of them last night. Brooke responded with a simple “cool,” but Linda, of course, had something to say. She texted me this morning claiming the Airbnb is in one of the highest crime areas in Dallas and reminded me we’d talked about staying in a hotel.

At this point, I’m ready to hand the reins over. I’m going to tell her that if she can find something better, I’m happy to change the plans—but honestly, I’d probably say more than that if I tried to reply right now. If you’re going to complain, then you find the accommodations. This trip has been in the works for almost a year! The show is January 31, so someone had to step up and make a decision.

I still want to go, and I know Brooke and I will have fun, but I’m starting to regret inviting Linda. If she didn’t live in the DFW area, I wouldn’t have even thought about including her. Lesson learned—I’m done planning trips like this. Hopefully, it doesn’t turn into a complete nightmare. 

Not much going on, as usual. My no-eating-out streak came to a screeching halt last week. There’s this random hole-in-the-wall Tex-Mex place with 55-cent margaritas on the 15th of each month, so Dennis and I went there. They have a two-drink limit per person. Sometimes Dennis orders two and I order two, but I was done after my two. They’re not strong, but since I don’t drink much, it was enough to help me sleep that night. Dennis even brought his water bottle in case I wanted to take his to-go, lol.

On Saturday, I had to do a Costco run to get food for the cats. Those guys eat so much—it feels like their food bowl is always empty! While I was out, I made a few stops for groceries and grabbed lunch. Other than that, I didn’t accomplish much, but at least I got food prepped for lunches. I’ve been doing better on that front lately. My current lunch obsession is honey-glazed turkey breast with American cheese sandwiches. The hardest part? Trying to eat or make a sandwich when Mango’s around. He will literally try to knock it out of my hand to eat it. He’s lucky he’s so stinking cute. I decided it’s easier to make a few sandwiches ahead of time and bring them in, so I only have to fight him once instead of every morning. Now I’m set for the rest of the week. He’s such a brat.

Sunday was a bit more fun. I went to get my nails done—just a simple polish, nothing fancy this time. There’s a pizza place a few doors down that I’ve heard great things about, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint! I got half red sauce with mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, and mushrooms, and the other half with olive oil, mozzarella, fresh garlic, oregano, Parmesan, feta, and grilled chicken. It might be the best pizza I’ve ever had. We polished it off—it was soooo good.

It was also National Popcorn Day, and one of the local movie theaters had a promo: fill your own bucket for $5. I’m a sucker for movie popcorn, so I grabbed an old Tidy Cat pail, bleached it out, and filled it up. Now I have popcorn for days.

Since I had Monday off, my mom wanted to meet for lunch, so me, her and Heather went to a hole-in-the-wall diner. Big mistake. They had the chaos from D.C. on TV, and the table next to us was making loud comments. Naturally, I felt the need to make loud comments back. I was wearing a sweatshirt that said, “Do something today that makes a mediocre white man angry.” When they started calling Biden senile, I waited a few minutes and then asked my mom if they’d need to take a break to change the orange idiot’s diaper. Things got a bit quieter after that. My food came out burnt, which my mom pointed out as a "see" moment, but I said something, and they took it off the bill. I wasn’t very hungry by then anyway.

After lunch, we went to Trader Joe’s to finish grocery shopping. I thought it would be less busy since it was a weekday and a holiday, but I was wrong—it’s always packed.  Heather is talking about doing a spooky photoshoot. We need to find a good location and plan costumes. She mentioned she’s been building up her photography business, which was great to hear. She’s pretty good at marketing herself but was annoyed about the TikTok ban since she uses it a lot for work. She said it hasn’t been the same since the blackout period, and I told her to buckle up because I feel like more changes are coming.

Not sure what this week will bring. I’m taking Friday afternoon off to get my hair done. I want to talk to my stylist about doing something different—I just feel like I need a change. I still haven’t gotten my gym access turned back on yet. I’ll take care of that tomorrow if I go in. We’re supposed to have a meeting, but honestly, I’m tempted to call in sick cause I'm sick of this place.