Rachel and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day.

The last 24 hours have SUCKED. Plain and simple. I officially dub this my worst 24 hours of my New York life.
It all started yesterday after work. Brandon was going to come over to help me install my ac unit. I was forcing him because he helped me pick it out and wouldn't allow me to pay for installation because he could do it, and at that point we were together. Seeing as how we're on good terms, I told him he had to, because I hate asking random pseudo friends to do things like this for me. So after work he told me he'd meet me in "one sec." Direct quote. Apparently one sec=20 minutes to Brandon. 20 minutes I stood in the cold. I was thoroughly annoyed, but tried to keep it inside since he was doing something so nice for me. Any of you who know me well know I can't keep these things inside. Plus, Brandon can read me like a book. Anyway, I was trying not to be a brat about it, but on the inside I couldn't help but be annoyed.
So we get back to the apartment and it turns out there're (removable) bars in the window we need to install it in. Que the 30 minute process of finding my screwdriver (which was conveniently in my roommate's room) and realizing it's too small, and then trying to get a hold of my super, unsuccessfully, and then knocking on neighbors' doors asking for a big flathead screwdriver. One guy didn't know what I was talking about, so I explained it, and he had one. Then (bless his heart) he asked me if I needed help with anything. Yeah, like I was going to trust my $100 ac unit in the hands of a guy who doesn't know what a flathead screwdriver is. But it was still nice of him. Oh yeah, the first two doors I knocked on were answered by guys without their shirts on. Yeah, I mean they were hot and all, and one of them had a REALLY nice body, but still. Kinda random for 6pm, don't you think?
Anyway, so after collecting a million screwdrivers there was one that was big enough. We then discovered the screws were some weird kind that could only be tightened. Lefty-loosy was not an option. AUGH!!! I especially felt bad for Brandon (and even more so for his friend Christopher who was drug along to help) because my place is so far out of their way. (Brandon lives in Brooklyn, Christopher lives in Jersey.) I finally get a hold of my super and he tells me there's a special tool to get it off, and he can do it, but not till tomorrow (meaning today.) So basically their coming up here was a waste of time and I booked an appointment with Jose the Super for today at 6:30pm. (It's now 7:43 and he never came, and I got his voicemail on his cell, nice.)
So Brandon and Christopher left. The next hour of my life was filled with the most hysterical drama I can't even get into because this is a public blog, but, just know, it SUCKED. I ended up ordering China Man (aka chinese food) and watching Regis and Kelly (thank you DVR.)
At 9, yes I said 9 I went to bed. I fell asleep probably just before 9:30pm, only to be woken up by my roommate around 11:15pm. She was in the living room on the phone and was freaking out because a RAT was in our apartment!!!!! You have got to be KIDDING me is all I could think.
Maybe this is mean, but I never got up and left the bedroom. I mean, really, what good would that have done? It's not like I was going to capture the intrusive rodent or anything. I did, however, get up and shove a towel along the bottom of my door. The rest of the night was filled with tossing and turning with rat on my brain. I did not, could not, deal with this. I had a dream I woke up and there was a giant rat skeleton in the bathroom surrounded by a green pool of guck. It was NASTY but I was grateful my roommate had killed it. Guess that was just wishful thinking, or wishful dreaming, whatever.
When I woke up I was dreading leaving my bedroom. All I could think about was the rat having babies in our apartment. <cringe>
I called Erin (she'd already left for the day) to see if she'd done anything about it. I got her voicemail, sweet. So I get up the courage to face a potentially disease infested beast, but luckily, no rat in sight. I seriously peered out my door, looked up the hall, down the hall, and scampered into the bathroom, did a quick inspection, and took care of morning business. Same routine when I ran back to my room. I quickly left the apartment for work (taking my trash with me so as not to leave any incentive for the rat to explore my room.)
I finally heard from Erin and she said the exterminator was coming today. This still doesn't ease my anxiety because I'm wondering if they'll lay out poison or set traps? If they lay out poison the rat will likely crawl into a wall and die, then stink up the place. Awesome. If they set traps we'll have to come across a rat with its neck snapped in half and I really can't deal with disposing of that. It's times like this I really need my dad here to take care of these things. I DON'T FEEL LIKE DEALING WITH THIS!!!!!
When I got to work life only got worse. I could go through the details of everything that went wrong, but you wouldn't understand it unless you were an assistant at HSBC. Everything just went wrong and I was tense all day. I'm definitely not used to having responsibility in my hands like I do with this job. I mean, if I mess up it could be a serious disaster for some high level execs. Also, I had to make so many travel arrangements I bet I was on the phone for literally, honestly, 4 hours. At 3:30 I finally left my desk to grab something to eat in lieu of lunch.
When I got back I'd received 8 emails in 20 minutes. Please please please never make me have a Blackberry HSBC!!
So one of my bosses who is a Vice President over two departments of about 70 people had a meeting today at 5pm. Not just a meeting, but a meeting that only happens twice a year. It's like, a really big deal. I found out TODAY that what was supposed to be only 35 people in a meeting was actually for 70. I'd booked our executive dining room, and everything was prepared for 35. Not only were they not going to be able to accommodate me, but the chick I'd been working with was a TOTAL JERK about the whole thing. I kept being very apologetic and explaining to her this was all news to me as well, but she couldn't understand that. I went up to talk to her face to face and ended up speaking with her manager and the little punk stood right next to me the whole time while I was working with the manager, who was only a semi-jerk. The manager and I were putting our heads together to try to figure out what our options were. The jerk kept throwing her two cents in, trying to make it impossible for me to make any adjustments. "We don't have any extra chairs, sorry, half your people will have to stand." (Which wasn't even true, by the way.)
ANYway, I wanted to kill this girl. So one of the other assistants and I got to the place of the meeting a little early to make sure everything was going to run smoothly. It was seriously a nail biter as people were piling in, trying to guess if there would be enough chairs and food. I wanted to scratch my eyes out. Fifteen minutes into it the other assistant told me I could leave because it seemed like it was running smoothly, so I did, even though I was dreading coming home to the rat.
I came home and have been in my room ever since. It's now 8. No super to take the bars off my windows, no exterminator to kill the uninvited guest. Awesome.
Oh yeah, I also broke a nail today.....after I just got a mani yesterday. (I wono't even get INTO the intrusive "massage" I got while I was there. I ended it EARLY because I felt so violated.) And the weather is cold and ugly.
I have decided, however, to list the good things about the day, to make myself a little happier:

-an unexpected call from my brother
-listening to the voicemail I saved of my nephew singing me happy birthday. That's always a good one to bust out on a rainy day.
-getting some genuine sympathy from one of my bosses I maybe have the biggest crush on
-having a 20 minute phone conversation with Shantay.....this is a miracle because we hardly get to talk
-getting to the B subway just as it was pulling up (always a tender mercy)
-having the apartment to myself (even though I can't enjoy the living room because I'm scared to go out there)
-coming back from my 20 second lunch to find a brownie on my desk Julia had left for me because she felt sorry for me (even though I didn't have time to eat it)
-getting an email from my new blogging friend Kathryn

That's it for now. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. It's Friday. YAY! Brad Paisley is performing at the GMA concert. Then it's the weekend and Chelsie and I are going to the ZOO on Saturday. I'm seriously so excited. I don't think I've been to the zoo in about 20 years. Honestly, I haven't been since I was little little little. Fun pics to come.

In regards to the rat, to be continued......