Crap morning

It's been quite the morning at my house.

It started off with me waking up from terrible, terrible nightmares. I think they were probably the result of needing to take a pain pill right before bed last night. I almost never have bad dreams so I think that was probably the trigger. I woke up shaken and depressed a couple of hours before I needed to actually get up for work, so I had something to drink, read a book for a few minutes, and then went back to sleep....

....and was awakened a few minutes later by my husband who had just had a frantic phone call from one of his aquarium clients, a nursing home 30 miles away, telling him that the 120 gallon tank in their lobby had water leaking all over the floor. Some old maintenance guy got on the phone, yelling that "the floor is probably ruined!!!" and "get your ass over here and do something!" Gregg took issue with the guy's tone and disrespectful attitude, and the conversation quickly escalated into an argument that ended when the guy actually threatened Gregg with bodily harm. Can you believe that?!

Gregg hung up on him and immediately called the facility manager and told her what had happened. She was suitably horrified by the situation and promised to deal with it. But still....physically threatened by a stranger over the phone at 7am is a first in this house!

Then there was the real issue of the tank losing water (maybe ruining the lobby floor, it's a 120 gallon tank, remember) and no one there having a clue what to look for.  And to make things even more fun, Gregg was due to be at his regular job at the pet store at 9am. Thursday is his live animal delivery day, which means that approximately $3000 worth of live fish were sitting in boxes at the store waiting on him. Dilemma! He was pacing the floor, really stressing out, trying to figure out what to do about all the chaos. He was almost frantic.

Luckily another (sane) maintenance guy from the nursing home called a few minutes later and had taken the initiative (bless him!) to check out the equipment, and it appears that a valve had somehow come loose underneath the tank. He was able to stop the flow of water temporarily. So Gregg decided to go to the store first, cut the new fish loose as quickly as possible, and then rush to the nursing home in a couple of hours to repair the faulty valve. He's hoping the lobby floor isn't ruined....AND that there's not some old janitor dude looking for him to kick his ass!

As for me, after waking up from nightmares, and then watching my husband stressing out over a crazy situation, I got physically ill. I've been taking antibiotics for my mouth, and they've got my stomach feeling all weird anyway. I threw up and I still feel nauseous. So I called in sick to work. I hated to do that. Also, I'm out of paid time off  (my anniversary date is in two weeks, and I'll get a whole year's worth of PTO then, how's that for timing?!) and I've already taken an extra day this week for the oral surgery. My paycheck next week is going to be pathetic! But when you're sick, you're sick. I can't very well go in throwing up. And with the way this day is going, I admit I'm a bit scared to so much as step outdoors!