My Friend Alexander

There is a children's book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day that was one of my favorites as a kid. If you did not have the pleasure of reading this book as a youth, and as an adult have not had the joy of sharing it with your children or grandchildren, I would recommend picking up a copy. For if you don't you are surely missing out. The story is about a little boy named Alexander who woke up one morning to find himself quite grumpy. The day keeps getting worse, every little thing going wrong or screwing up or becoming messy, dirty and complicated. The people in his life all compound these problems and create another source of irritation. His solution? Move to Australia to get away from his misfortune. Its a cute reminder that a bad day can be just that, a bad day. And when you wake up the next morning everything is okay again.

I had not thought about Alexander in quite some time. My brother was on the phone telling me about his bad day when I remembered the book. Of course my little brother remembered it as well because he inherited his copy from me. I thought about poor little Alexander and how lucky he was. For he gets to wake up the next day, or worse case scenario a few days later, and the bad juju complicating his life is gone. Mine usually lasts for a week, at least, and honestly has been going on for six straight years. Normal people, normal things, normal life, I just can't deal with it anymore!

Yesterday I was supposed to get my carpet cleaned. The spots are so bad I am embarrassed to have people over. So I stayed up the night before until 3AM cleaning and moving furniture out of the main ares. I was all ready with a day full of activities, dog friendly I might add, to keep us out of the house for a few hours so the carpet could dry a bit before we walked all over it. So I sat here during my "window" from 9-12, ready at the drop of a hat to throw my computer in my bag, snap leashes on my dogs and go. Finally around 1:30 I get the message they are not coming due to emergency flooding. Re-scheduled for this morning, last night around 8PM the flare hit. And I knew there was absolutely no way I would be able to do this all over again the next day. So I got MAD, furious, angry. Sobbing like a 3 year-old as I washed dishes and felt my body slip deeper into pain and hurt. Why is it so hard to exist in the outside world? Why does something as minor as the carpet getting cleaned a day later put me in bed for a week? And the biggest one of all, lying deep down at the bottom of all the others; why am I sick, why me, why why why? I need to know! So Alexander boy I feel you today. But no offense to Australia, Santorini is calling my name.

Thanks for joining,

Leah

Alexander And The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, written by Judith Viorst