Black Wednesday

It would seem that Black Wednesday attitude has permeated far beyond my own personal little world.

I was surprised to be feeling more hopeful this year and not nearly so blue as I have felt on previous Black Days (i.e. Valentine's Day). Not sure why exactly, but I was not going to question a more positive attitude. (I'm even wearing a touch of white amidst all my black.)

However, people have pissed me off and generally been just plain mean to me for no reason other than they must be celebrating Black Wednesday too. OK, people, listen up - if you're going to celebrate Black Wednesday, the first rule is to just stick to yourself. Don't go being mean to other people for no good reason. It's just bad karma and will come back to haunt you. Got that? Right then, on to today's escapades so far.

This morning at the gym I did my warm up, then signed up for the next available elliptical trainer. I had to wait 5 minutes but that was fine. 5 minutes go by, I see the guy using the machine is still going but give him an extra 3 minutes because I figure he must be finishing up soon, right? Wrong. 3 minutes later I asked if he was going to be done soon. He tells me "3 more minutes". Well, you know what, this is not OK anymore. This means that my workout is going to be at least 6 minutes shorter. Anyway, I decided to just go and lean against the wall until the machine was free. I had no intention of starting an argument at that time of the morning. Well, a moment later one of the gym instructors asks me if there is a problem. I explained the situation. The instructor went over to look at the sign up sheet, came back and then had a quiet word with the guy using the machine. That didn't go over too well. He got all huffy, stomped off, stomped back to wipe it down and then got up in my face and practically spits at me, "you're not supposed to sign up in advance, you know!" I backed up, kind of surprised, and immediately felt guilty - FOR NOTHING!!! The person who had signed up in advance had crossed off their name after this guy had started, I guess. So I mentioned (politely) that I had only just put my name after his about 5 minutes ago (closer to 10 now). He goes off all red in the face, sputtering away. So much for exercise making you feel good. I got on the machine, did my workout and the short lived stress I felt pretty much disappeared. I have no idea what the hell that was all about but now, nearly 3 hours later, I've got a hundred comebacks ready for this guy.

Then, on my way to work another ass managed to totally deflate my now lessened good humour. It's snowing here today, we're expecting about 15-20cm of snow (little in comparison to other areas). Visibility isn't great right now, but the roads are still pretty good for driving downtown. I was crossing the last street before getting to work when I slipped on some ice hidden under the freshly fallen snow. Luckily I didn't fall on my ass but I did come down hard on my knee and took a second to get my balance before trying to stand up on the ice. This took way too long for the car that was stopped beside me though. I'm sure he saw me fall. But instead of waiting patiently for me to get out of the way, he started honking at me! So the next thing you know I'm scurrying out of the way so this asshole can get to where he's going that is so much more important than maybe leaning out of his window and asking if I'm alright. Well, that's when I said "enough!" to myself. He probably never heard me but I flipped him the bird (OK, inside my mitt) and shouted "asshole" as he passed me by.

Man. My good mood from exercising is completely gone and now I'm all full of rage. And I have nothing good to say about anything.

Black Wednesday hits again.