Today I saw everything. Everything was important. Everything was meaningful. My superstitious self was in high gear. I woke up or rather got out of bed later than I should have. I started my bad day column with a check mark. Couldn’t find hair brush. Another mark.

I saw a family with eight goslings and then a family with three goslings on my way to work. Apply those to the good day column. Parking spot found right in front of my work. That also goes in the good day column. The day’s scale is leaning to the good…

Inexplicable anxiety felt over a staff meeting scheduled at 10am. The feelings were so strong that I had to disgorge them onto my coworker. She’s a tough nut. I don’t think that she has columns in her head. Partial furlough imposed at meeting. My mind reeled and the columns disappeared in the enormity of this last check mark. My budget is so tight already from the financial problems that spun wildly out of control last year. I had them pretty much worked out. Saved a little money for emergencies. But this last weekend I splurged on new clothes to wear to my nephew’s wedding. Ahhh, mark mark mark in bad day column. This could well spill over into the bad year column.

Coworker noticed a huge dent on the right rear quarter panel of my truck. Do trucks have quarter panels? I was so disheartened. First dent on it and it is 5 years old. Coworkers said that it should be easy to fix. But I can’t afford that now. Hey I couldn’t afford it before the 10% cut in pay.

I finished what work I had to and left for my second visit to the wound center to treat my left leg. I feel very self consious about getting such high end health care for my leg. What can I say, super low self esteem here, right?

Took two wrong turns to get there, evidence that I was still reeling from the news from work. The columns came back into my head and threatened to topple into the street in front of me.

Got a good parking space. (I place a lot of emphasis on the proximity of my parking space to my destination. I know I obsess about that, and those damn check marks.) It was nice to see a little check on the good day side.

Sat in the waiting room and started a new mystery. In the first chapter, the philosophy of the bad guy was described as Death can solve a lot of problems. No man. No problem. Okay, this might not be the right book to read right now…

Sat in the treatment room for the longest time knowing that they were out there and I would get my turn but feeling left out, forgotten and isolated. Left to my thoughts and tears about my budget. The wound is healing well, came in before it got too bad. And somehow that goes into the good column rather than a pat on the back for taking care of myself.

Left there and driving down Rt 9 saw a wild turkey in someone’s side yard. Wow! A big black bold check mark. I love seeing turkeys. Thank you, God. I know that you are not a micro-manager but thanks for that turkey and those goslings this morning. Then I saw a red pick up truck with the whole side mashed in and he was still driving it. See my dent’s not so bad. And the truck had a bumper sticker on it that read Have a Nice Day!

That did it! Good day column filled up! To the max! Fuck the furlough. I will survive. Gloria Gaynor, sing my theme song!