This has been one of those weeks. I was reduced to an entire post that merely consisted of a brief message. "Seriously?!" It started on Tuesday when Murphy came out swinging. If it could go wrong, it went wrong. By midnight I was beaten down and mentally drained. Surely this is just a bad day. Then, my preteen had that kind of day on Wednesday. The kind of day that made me long to have him small enough to crawl in my lap so I could tickle the pain away. But, alas, they grow up and all you can really do is stand by them and let them know you are there for them. Always. (Though, the pain they feel shatters your own heart.) At that point I began to shake my fists at Mr. Murphy and his rotten Law.

Today it was time for my teen to be put through the ringer. But this time it was a battle I could fight. Not necessarily one that needed anything more than a stern glare, but I had had it by then and came back swinging at the injustice of adults who are condescending to teenagers and other adults. It was a fight I fought possibly a tad too hard. But when my kids are involved, I will not and do not back down. (So, how hard is homeschooling exactly? I'm just asking.) We all have those days. (Some just last all week.)

As I read through some of the blogs in our Mommy & Family blogroll, I found that I was not alone in having one of "those" weeks. Some that are rather light hearted but irritating. One that realized it could be worse. And one that had the scare of her life. (I should remind myself to check with BlogHer's resident Astrologer to find out when this is going to pass.)

I have to admit, even though it made for a bad day for her, when I read about her bad day on That's Life v. 2.0, I did laugh with her description of the way her day went. Hey, anyone who can compare their life to ill-fitting underwear will get a giggle out of me.

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So, my silky underwear, that, after a pregnancy and a return to non pregnancy size two years later, is now too big for me, seemed to be sliding all over the place today. And by all over the place I mean places that underwear should not be...

My underwear was probably just mirroring how the rest of my life seemed to be fitting me; a little twisted, a little bit not right, a little bit annoying all adding up to a massive headache.

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I cannot tell you how many comments I have received or people I have talked to who have had days very recently where life is sliding all over the place like ill-fitting underwear. And really? Who needs a wedgie when you are trying to work, parent and just live your life?

There are also those days when we feel like no matter what, our day is so bad that we have earned the right to whine and be grumpy. Face it. Most of us do that when pushed too far by the way things are going. Carmen gets it. She recently had one of those days (and by days, I actually mean she has had a few of those days lately) and felt herself at wit's end.

It was a rotten day. A ROTTEN day. A truly, awful, mean and nasty day. Grumpy people, difficulties, sore knee, grumpy and needy children, loads of laundry that NEVER seem to dissipate, medications that needed to be refilled, groceries to purchase, special jumbo index cards requiring a trip to the Office supply store, etc etc etc. I realized tonight that I promised a tie dye shirt to the winner of a contest in JULY and never did it. My house is a tip and I can't seem to get on top of anything. Too many things to juggle at once, and so I let most of them hit me in the head and grew more and more grumpy as the day wore on.

It was in this mood she realized she needed to go shopping of all things while her kids had their hair cut. It is in those places, those moments that we least expect them that life puts things into perspective. Had you asked Carmen if she would end her day being thankful for the "bad" day she was having, I am sure she would have given you and earful or at least a good hard stare down. But on this day, she ran into Carol. As Carmen was checking out she struck up the "my day is awful" type conversation. Carol casually mentioned that there is always someone worse off than she has it which was met with a quick retort of "at least I don't have cancer."

[Carol] does have cancer. Carol meets with a specialist tomorrow to deal with multiple cysts on her ovaries and a mass in her stomach. She was calm and peaceful, and worked into our conversation more than once that, no matter how badly she felt she had it, someone always had it much worse. She's convinced it's not her time and promised me she'd see me next month, when I return for the haircut/barber shop trip.

I felt justly and thoroughly reprimanded. Not by her, but by God. My troubles are petty and small. Carol's are not, and yet she took the time to try to make me feel better.

It pretty much can put things in perspective when we have one of "those days" and run into someone who is just fighting to continue to have "those days" for years to come. When in the face of another person's mortality, you realize that your day may be horrible, but your life is not as bad as it feels in that moment.

A dear friend, Yvonne, had a scare that had her fearing she could be in the middle of a crisis that could cut "those kind of days" out of her life completely. It scared her as it would anyone. When faced with the possibility of our own mortality, we see things differently.

When I came back to the table, I was shaking and pale and asked Tony to take me to the doctors.

As we were getting in the car, the pain got worse and I asked Tony to call 911 on the way home. (We were only about 3 minutes away from home.)

He did.

They rolled up just as we had made it through the front door.

They asked my symptoms and as I told them, they put an oxygen mask on my face and took my blood pressure.

152/108

They took a reading of my heart.

“I see some abnormalities” I heard one of the medics say to the other.

“We’re going to give you a spray of something, it’s called Nitro.”

I started to shake. I was terrified.

So were my children. I could see them off to the side and they were nervous.

“I’m ok!” I shouted through my oxygen mask. “I’m going to be ok.”

But I wasn’t so sure and they knew it.

I have been in that situation. In the ER with the heart monitors, the fear that you're having a heart attack and all you can do is think of the should haves, and the worry of "what if..." It scares you in ways nothing else can. You realize that the things that were vitally important yesterday don't look so bad today. You understand that the situation you were fretting over suddenly seems a bit more insignificant.

Those bad days? You just want more than anything to be okay and walk away knowing that you will have tons more bad and good days.

Not to get all Soap Opera Dramatic on you, but this experience has changed me.

Just remember next time you have one of those days that feels like life is giving you an atomic wedgie, there is someone who has it worse and could use your support, or in a worse case scenario that person could be you and you will realize just how bad a day can become.

I wish you all good days. Days that fit like the best pair of underwear ever!

Jennifer is off to de-wedgify her bad day now!
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~You can find more of my writing at Mommy Needs Coffee, Mommybloggers , Fresh Brewed Reviews and Aggroqueen.~