i don't like mondays

it started out at 5:20 a.m., when i woke up for no apparent reason, and couldn't get back to sleep for hours. i had gone to bed around 1:30, feeling pretty good, having gotten all my boring weekend shit done, plus had some fun, plus made some decisions about some things i've been waffling on. i felt quite well prepared for monday ... ha hah HAH. that was perhaps my first mistake.

anyway. i lay in bed, determined to sleep, but no sleep came. oosoul snoozed, oblivious, by my side. lucky stiff, i thought. i think i fell asleep somewhere around 7 ... or later ... or maybe i didn't actually fall asleep until two minutes before the alarm went off. that's what it felt like, at least.

oh, well, i thought as i stumbled out of bed. i got a lot of sleep this weekend. should be ok for one day. (never mind that that weekend sleep was making up for last week's deprivations.) tried not to think about the fact that i have to go out to see a show tonight, so relief won't be forthcoming until ... probably next weekend. did usual boring morning stuff. fed cat. drank coffee. read paper. smirked at headlines about new! specific! terror! threat! (gee, a week after the democratic convention! what a coinkydinky!)

got out of the house later than i would have liked, but felt pretty good. had all my stuff, ready to go. start car. it rumbles to life, dies. try again, same thing. third time, i stomp on the accelerator to give it extra juice for start. BOOOOOOMMM! a very large noise, near-explosion-sounding, rattles the whole car. sounds like it came from under the hood. the car is now running, but very, very loudly. i have no idea what has just happened, but it doesn't sound good. begin to envision blown gaskets, pistons, rods, something horrible.

still do not lose it. yay, me. i was thinking of taking the car in to get the brakes adjusted this week anyway, so ... ok. sooner, rather than later. but i am really glad i wrote this story about my stupid car last week, when it was still in my good graces. sheesh.

i call john, my trusty mechanic. he says he's not busy, bring it in. (miracle! he's almost always busy on monday mornings.) i call AAA, get a tow truck. this takes 45 minutes, but i get one piece of work done while waiting, so hurray for multitasking. tow-truck driver comes, has me start up the car. he says it's the muffler. he crawls around underneath it, shining a flashlight everywhere. yep, he's pretty sure it's the muffler. i briefly think i should drive it to john's myself, but tow-truck driver is willing to take me, and, what the hell do i pay AAA for anyway?

that was another excellent decision, as i could've seriously fried something if i'd driven it. the trip over the hill and to noho seemed to take several years, but i can't blame the guy for driving cautiously, especially with my baby hitched to his bumper.

it takes another forever for the rental-car guy to come pick me up, and then, at the rental place, for the car to be ready. but these guys are always cool to me, the rate is super-cheap, and, indeed, they're having a nicer car washed so i'm not stuck with a horrible micro-compact for the day. yay, fellas.

i finally get to work. things are fairly mellow. but i'm surprised to find that i don't have a single piece of copy waiting for me to edit. i call my film editor in a huff, and he informs me that he e-mailed his story last night. well, i don't have it, i say to him. nor the lead arts piece, nor, come to think of it, a couple of things i'd forwarded to myself from home. hmmmmm. so, apparently, some kinda wacky e-mail thing has gone on over the weekend. naturally, i begin to think of all the people who were either supposed to write to me, or might have written to me, and send out a bunch of "in case you wrote to me over the weekend, i didn't get it. but if you didn't write, that's ok." which makes me feel like a paranoid freak, but what can you do?

so, tonight's show is a bombass lineup of reigning sound, sahara hotnights, and the hives. but i thought the RS would be in the middle, or maybe i just hoped that, b/c i'm going to write about them vs. the hives, who are taking RS on tour b/c they have been a big inspiration. turns out RS goes on at 8:30, so i am gonna have to jet out of work earlier than i would've liked, thanks to losing so much time to car trouble, and dash to the venue to brave the no-doubt-huge "press and other special people" line and stuff. argh!

i don't exactly feel like i haven't gotten a single break today. i've had several. but, effing HELL! i do keep looking over my shoulder...