It's 7 PM and I am tired and angry.

My day started at 5 am. I taught two classes. Then I waited patiently to get my back cracked at the chiropractor's, trying to close my eyes and meditate in preparation for the long day ahead, while the therapist kept walking by, making snide comments, and punching me in the arm telling me I'd better wake up. When I said I wasn't sleeping but simply trying to meditate, I got grilled about whether my mala beads were a 'rosary'. I finally got my back adjusted, and grabbed some lunch, unfortunately walking in to find myself joining people who I'd rather not sit with; people who think asthma is pretty much all in your mind. I endured and was polite, thankful that the issue of my offending lungs never came up.

Then I went to the DMV. For an hour. Then to my garage for an emissions test. Then to downtown City Hall for almost two hours with ghetto-ass freakazoids bothering me while I waited for my Personal Property Tax Waiver. Then I went back to the DMV. My car is now legal. My taxes are paid. I've also lost $150 a month in income from one of my classes being cancelled. And now I have a traffic ticket to pay, so I'll be eating ramen noodles probably for a while. But I smiled anyway. I smiled at the assholes at City Hall, I smiled at the DMV people, and the babies I saw all day... Then I came home to find that a Census worker had visited my home.

The first form they sent never arrived. The 2nd form came as I was jumping through hoops to buy my car, and then get rattled by harassment from a student, and wondering if I'd be fired for standing up for myself. Now a man, no less, a strange man came to knock on my door. I now HAVE to be interviewed in person. When I called this man back as requested, he was so inarticulate that it took 10 minutes for him to simply confirm that I'd have to be interviewed in person now. I said no way was any man coming into my home, or standing at my front door. I have an appointment with a woman for Wednesday around lunch to answer five stupid questions.

I feel like Greta Garbo. I've had enough of the world for a month. I want to be left alone. I am naturally a recluse. I want to do Bound Lotus and be left alone.