Ch. 27 - Turning a Rainy Day Around

                                    

                                          
848:
I won't beat around the bush. I won't speak about today with false pretenses, with storied verses and pretty words, nor allow a tone indicative of anything but the truth to be built. 
To that end, allow me to get straight to the point, and allow me to speak bluntly, if you will: today was awful so far.
There was no doubt about it, and there was certainly no hiding it - nor was there even a point in doing so. Put simply, I was having an awful day. It was just... Goddesses, it was just the worst.
And trust that I don't say that lightly.
It started off bad, and it somehow kept finding the means to get worse and worse as the day progressed. Well, that's the pattern I was starting to suspect by the sheer amount of things that had gone wrong already... and it was only lunchtime.
My day had started somewhat normally. I woke up, anyway, and in all fairness, that was quite normal for me by now - obviously. But when I got up to do my business in the bathroom and got dressed for the day, I realized only once I left my office that I had buttoned my shirt wrong, leaving it uneven in my groggy, still half-asleep state. 
Thankfully, I fixed it before anyone could see, but when I met Levi down in the mess hall, I realized I must have woken up later than normal, and certainly later than I should have, because everyone was nearly done with breakfast already.
So, oops.
Oh, and when I rushed to grab a meal for myself, I was so close to reaching my usual seat when I tripped or slipped or something of that nature, and get this, it sent my food flying. Now, who does that surprise? 
It hurt my pride more than anything else, and though Eld - who had gotten up to speak with me on the day's duties and things of that nature, and had nearly been at my side when it happened - had helped me up with all the kindness in the world, and Levi had ensured that I was alright, I had effectively lost my appetite.
Then came the usual morning routine. By now, it was so engrained into my body that the routine should have been routine, nothing more and nothing less... but that wasn't quite the case, which was on par for what had happened today thus far. 
Thankfully, taking care of Strider went normally. He was in a good mood like usual, which brightened upon seeing me and he greeted me happily. But after I made sure he had been given breakfast and plenty to drink, I stepped towards his tack to check it over and then prepare it only to step in a big, stinking, absolutely steaming pile of fresh horse shit that one of the scouts must not have realized their horse dropped on their way out for a ride or when heading out to pasture.
I didn't know if horses could laugh but while Strider only peered at me curiously, wondering why I was so upset all of a sudden, a few other horses in stalls nearby whinnied and nickered and at that moment, I couldn't help but feel like the butt of some joke. I only continued to feel that way as dozens of beady, inquisitive eyes stared me down as I scraped the shit off my foot with a nearby shovel.
Because I couldn't just sit and whine about the situation, I led Strider out of his stall, put his bridle on, then led him out to pasture. After, I made my way to the training grounds, and I was feeling pretty good, because there was, at the very least, sure to be no horse shit to be found there - hopefully. 
As with any other day, I started my day by overseeing basic strength and conditioning drills for the main forces, and joined in and did some myself, and switched back and forth between them for a while, and that part was fine. 
I went around and corrected the posturing of someone doing push-ups, then addressed another who thought they could skip a few while my back was turned, and as such, it was business as usual on that front.