There is no one thing I can point to that says today blows.

There was the kid in my bed at 3 AM (booted out around 4, to sleep in until 7, when she refused to get up). I got plenty of hours of sleep. I still woke up exhausted.

There was hightailing it to get to school on time.

There’s the fact I discovered Pea engaged in highlighter graffiti in the book I’m reading.

There’s the fact Pea has been using my lipsticks and eyebrow pencil to draw on the bathroom counter. And admits, “I did it on purpose, Mama.” (Note to self: teach Pea to say, “I want a lawyer” if she’s ever picked up by the cops.)

There was park day at school, where my kid called out another kid for being mean…in front of that kid’s mom. (At least there was no bullying, and the bullied child from last week came up and hugged me.)

There was killing time waiting for Pea’s flu vaccination, which amounted to going out to lunch and then faux-shopping (real shopping requires real money) with a cranky, tired five-year-old. Going out to eat and shopping with a rested Pea is delightful. This was NOT delightful.

There was the waiting at the pediatrician’s office.

There was the traffic on the way home.

There was the tantrum Pea threw at home, up to and including saying “stupid Mommy.” That earned an extra ten minutes in her room on top of the ten she’d already earned for making a mess, refusing to pick it up, and then yelling about it. If you think I’m mean for not cleaving to the “one minute per year of age” timeout rule, then 1) you can kiss my ass, because I needed the peace and 2) she was not in timeout, she was in her room where she had lots of things to do.

There is the fact that this is actually day two of Pea being difficult. That makes it day two of not getting work done, and that makes me very, very grouchy.

So all in all, not a great day. It’s not one thing; it’s just the gestalt. If it didn’t screw with most of my meds, I’d say I really needed a drink now.