OBIM And I'm Tired, Cold, And Cranky

Today was one of those days where the minute I woke up I just wanted to go back to sleep because I knew it was not going to be a good day. It started with me waking up, after only 7 hours of sleep and a series of intense nightmares, feeling groggy and exhausted. Things did not improve upon leaving the warmth of my bed. The skylight in my bedroom has a leak and wintry air has been pouring into my bedroom for the last two weeks. The bathroom is worse. Because there's no heater in the bathroom, and because I don't like to sleep with doors a jar (fear of dark spaces), every morning when I open the bathroom door I'm greeted with a burst of damp, frigid air. It is so not fun to get naked in there.

I was supposed to go to an interview at 9:30 am so I dressed in my standard skirt suit. Oh my god, nylons were such a mistake this morning. On a normal day, giving myself a half hour to get to Times Square would have been plenty of time. However, this morning, on the coldest day ever, there was not a single free cab on the UES. I walked six blocks and waited for 20 minutes, and didn't see a single empty cab. By 9:20 my thighs were so cold that they were burning, my nose was bright red and dripping, my eyes were watering, and my head was pounding (lack of caffeine and frustration). I was a mess and I was late! I ended up running home so that I could get my recruiter's number off of my email and ask them to cancel for me. With 5 minutes notice! It will be a small miracle if that firm reschedules. It would have bothered me more, except that I was too cold to care.

From there, the day continued to go downhill. I trudged around town looking for winter boots and had no luck. In between shoe stores, I stopped by a few clothes stores and tried to find something cute. Trying to find something "cute" does not work well when trying on something entails stripping off 5 layers of bulky clothes and you feel like you look like hell. I really was not a pretty sight. I have no idea what I was thinking, and I think that was precisely the problem: It was so cold that my brain was not functioning properly.

I tried to wake up by having some coffee but continued to feel like a groggy zombie all day. In one of today's few successes, I dragged myself to Home Depot and bought plastic to cover my windows, light bulbs, and picture hooks - all things I've been meaning to get for several weeks. Though it was sheer misery trekking home with all of my bags, it was worth it. My bathroom window is now covered with insulating plastic. Hopefully, it makes a difference.

The other major success of the day was that Luis, the handyman, took a look at my skylight. Unfortunately, Luis thinks that the skylight is the product of shoddy installation, and that the only way to fix it properly is to replace the damn thing, which obviously the building is not going to do. Especially not in the dead of winter. I explained, as sweetly as possible, that I just need a temporary fix to get me through the winter. Although Luis had reservations about the plan, he lined the skylight with a layer of sealant and promised to be back tomorrow with "something stronger." All of my hopes for a warm winter now lie in Luis' hands. I'm crossing my fingers that he finds a magic solution between now and tomorrow afternoon when I have to take off yet another afternoon from work to attend to my apartment issues. If my skylight isn't fixed soon, my firm is going to start thinking that I'm up to something.

Despite the grumpy tone of this post, I actually had a great weekend and have lots of things to report in the categories of the gym, dating, books, and movies. I'm just too cranky to write about all of that right now. Tomorrow, I'll fill y'all in. Now, I'm off to chill while watching the new episode of "Heroes." (Gypsy and Lass, I'm a convert). After Heroes, it's off to bed for me. Come hell or a leaky skylight, I'm going to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight and a get a solid 8 hours of sleep. Tuesday will be a better day.