Well, MOST of the day was great, anyway.

I had three days off work. Or so I thought.

And trust me--I NEEDED those three days. The people I work with are out-of-this-world, batshit crazy. Prescriptions for Xanax and Zoloft should be required elements of employment there. The stress of being there in general, combined with Zoey's tough transition to daycare has pushed me just THIS close to the edge in the past three weeks.

I normally have Tuesday and Thursday off, and since only two cases were scheduled for Wednesday, I volunteered to take the day off to spend some much-needed time with my daughter and to rest, relax, and hopefully de-stress a bit. Everyone needs to take a Mental Health Day here and there, right? (Some people need a few weeks after having a mental breakdown at work, but trust me, that's a different story.)

Today started off on the perfect foot--Zoey came to bed with me early in the morning and managed to sleep in until 8:00. I woke up, for once, feeling reasonably rested and ready for the day. (Part of the problem lately is Zoey's new-onset inability to sleep through the night. She generally wakes up at 1:00 a.m. and sometime around 4:00 a.m., crying and sadly calling "Mommy! Mommy!". The bringing-her-to-bed-with-me part will probably come back to bite me in the ass later on, but when you're going on a couple weeks of continual interrupted sleep, your common sense errodes and you do whatever will earn you the most rest.) We got up together and snuggled on the couch, me with my coffee and Zoey with her milk. We watched the Today show. My friend Kim and her two boys came over to play. (Things were going well until Zoey pegged Colby, who is a newborn, in the head with her shoe. The playdate wound down quickly after that.) We ate lunch, then went for a walk to the coffee shop down the street, where I answered the posted trivia question correctly and won a free iced tea. Back at home, Zoey flat refused to go to sleep, and for once I didn't feel as though this were the end of my day--I got her up and we went on an "adventure" (read: Mommy got lost) to the recycling center. She passed out on the way home. All was well, until my cell phone rang.

I won't share the details of the conversation, but the gist of it all is that I have to go to work tomorrow morning, for three hours. Seems that many cases have been added to our schedule and they "just can't justify letting me have the whole day off".

Guess it's a good thing I didn't decide to spend my three Mental Health Days out of town, eh?

The most annoying part of the conversation came at the end, when my co-worker asked "so, you'll be here from 7:30-10:00, is that all okay?". Yeah, sure. It's GREAT. Because the plans I had made for tomorrow were a lot less fun than coming to work, which is the one place I feel like I need to be far, far away from right now! No worries! I'm sure YOU'D think it was great if you were given the day off, only to have it taken away at the last minute!

So. Tomorrow I had planned to take Zoey to preschool from 8:30 to noon, so I could have a couple hours to myself to shop for my husband's birthday gifts and maybe even go to the gym. (My time-to-myself tank has been running a little low lately, what with Zoey feeling as though she needs to be attached to my hip at every moment. I SO needed those three hours to myself!) Damn, damn, damn....

I guess the only thing I can tell myself is that I only have four more months to endure at this crazy, crazy job with it's crazy, crazy workers. Then I will move home to Puyallup and get my old job back, which requires NO call schedule AND has the added benefit of mentally stable co-workers. I've already called my husband and told him we need to discuss my Quit Date sometime this week--I need a date in my mind to look forward to, something I can circle on my calendar that will end the insanity of working in a place where your day off isn't REALLY your day off, and can be recalled at any given moment.