Smack Down the Optimist Day

It comes shortly after Talk Like a Pirate Day. Without going into too many details, I was the Optimist in question, and the smacking was severe, continuous, and came out of nowhere. Much of the morning (and the night before) I spent reeling from the smack down, listening to Alice in Chains and exclaiming "I don't understand!", and exhibiting other physical manifestations of acute trauma and stress. Yeah, it was that bad. No, I can't go into details, but I'll say to the two people I talked to about what was going on, thank you a million times over, my friends. And to the two people I talked to (not about it), thank you, too. It was helpful not to focus on the drama for a while.

This morning, while the worst transpired, my mom called. I called her back an hour later. My dad had a heart attack, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He'll be in the hospital until Tuesday. Lots of tests, still trying to assess the damage, the heart attack may not have been "mild". Unfortunately, regular readers here can surmise it wasn't a huge surprise.

The afternoon improved. I managed to recover from the original smack down, and we're well on our way to working things out. Yeah, the optimist is back! The day is over and I can reflect and say "I just had one of the shittiest days of my life, and now it's over." One good thing was the person who shared the shitty day and I came to a new understanding of each other and can move forward more positively.

I had forgotten how much I like Alice in Chains.