This morning, I was my own human alarm clock, awaking myself (and I'm guessing all of my neighbors) with an exuberant cry that went something like: "AAAAAAAAAH!!! Leg! Cramp!!"

Joe, in his utter state of sleepiness, sat up and made sleepy noises, as he reached through the jungle of tangled covers. He began massaging my right leg. "No, the other leg! Not my foot, higher, no too high!" Finally, he reached the exact point of rock-like muscle in my calf and I screamed some more as he massaged it out. I was so very, very close to tears. All I could do was continue making the oh-dear-god-the-pain! noises until it was over. The cramp ended. My leg throbbed. I focused on calming down, and slowing my spastic, hurried breathing. I hugged Joe and thanked him. I sat in the dark on the bed as Joe tricked the cats into leaving the bedroom. He shut the door and crawled back under the covers.

"Oh, shit," I said, utterly defeated.

"What is it?" Joe asked.

"I have to get up for work in 2 minutes," I sighed, staring sadly at the orange glowing numbers.

5:58am.

The real miracle of the day is that I somehow showed up at work. My brain was trying to conceive all sorts of ways to tell my supervisor I couldn't come in, but I was swayed away from that idea purely by the reasoning that I might need to call in sick sometime next week. (Hi, I'm Meg, Professional Slacker.)

So, not only were my feet stiff and sore from working last night's shift, I had to deal with the morning cleaning routine. I kept sitting, resting, and saying, "I just can't do this." But then, I did. I'm not sure how exactly, but I did get stuff done this morning.

At noon, I asked one of my supervisors if I could go home early. She said she'd get back to me on that, since she wasn't sure how the photo shoot (don't ask) would interfere with peoples' schedules and responsibilities.

I actually said the words, "Okay. I just truly can't stand or walk right now. At all. My feet can't take it. I need to sit."

Her response: "What's wrong with your feet, man??"

(Plenty! Two different people asked me if I'd sprained my ankle because of the way I was walking today!)

So I went into the long response. It's like carpal tunnel syndrome, but in my feet, blah blah. Later, CatGirl said, "I overheard part of what you were saying earlier... You have some wrist problem?" heh. So I told CatGirl, too. I felt like one of those seventy-eight year old hospital regulars who sits in the waiting room, talking at too high a volume about gallstones and other ailments. Then again, I prefer for at least the people at work to know what's going on with me, so that they don't think (find out) that I'm a super-slacker, when they see me sitting and taking breaks all the time.

You never know what kind of good will come from random things, though. CatGirl approached me later and said, "If you want to cover me in the office, I'll walk dogs for you." CatGirl is my hero. (And Rydia is my new best friend for walking up to me and giving me a shoulder rub out of the clear blue sky! She didn't even know I wasn't feeling well!)

Most people hate working in the office. There are times I've hated covering for Office Guy. But today a woman thanked me in a really genuine way when I gave her a number to help find her cat. And when I told the weird dog owner to go ahead and call this one organization to bail her dog out of doggie prison (weird legal issues with another shelter)? She thanked me, and said people from our shelter have been nothing but helpful and supportive towards her. Then, right before I had to go, another woman called, just to let us know that the cat she adopted from us "is doing fabulously!" and that her son named him Treasure.

It all seemed to balance out -- a beautiful end to a day that started out horribly.

On top of that, the strange supervisor I mentioned before was making jokes and being friendly to me this afternoon. And my co-worker who hasn't said more than one word at a time to me the past couple of weeks is now speaking to me again, nicely and everything (imagine that!)... like old times. The other "huffy" co-worker gladly and quickly came in last night to help me walk dogs when I was the only person who showed up for the shift (don't be alarmed -- the two people who didn't show up both had a death in the family). In fact, my favorite supervisor made some phone calls when she saw I was all alone last night. And people came. We walked dogs. We got stuff done. Teamwork rules. And then my supervisor and I closed up and chatted and had some nice moments just talking about work and animals, and swapping pet stories.

And once again, my faith is renewed in my co-workers, my workplace, my job. I don't feel like running for the hills just yet. Today, I love what I do. Who knows what tomorrow will hold... For now, I'm holding onto this feeling and cherishing every moment it lasts.