When I first told my dear—and I’d say fairly optimistic—friend Bridget that I was working on Filling the Glass, she reminded me that it was okay if sometimes the glass spills. Being the complete klutz that I am, I figured it was only a matter of time before that happened. Sure enough, today it did.

     Occasionally when I have the kind of day where nothing seems to go right, I’m reminded of one of my favorite books from childhood. As someone who writes for a fourth-grade magazine and works at a children’s publisher, it probably comes as no surprise that I love children’s books. But as a recovering pessimist, it should definitely come as no surprise that the book I am referring to is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. In fact, I recently gifted this book to a friend of mine who is pregnant with twins. I told her it seemed like the perfect gift for the babies to receive from crabby Aunt Natalie. I wasn’t at all offended by how quickly my friends agreed, or that one response was, “Wow, this book really stuck with you, didn’t it?” I was never good at hiding my pessimism, I guess.

     As a child, I empathized greatly with Alexander. This poor kid has some rough luck just like me. As an adult, I sympathize with Alexander. This poor kid is probably all grown up now, out there spilling his glass left and right and in total denial like I was. Poor Alexander. If only I knew where he lived—I’d send Dr. Seligman his way.

     But today, I definitely felt a bit like Alexander, and I thought it’d be entertaining to recap the events in his story-telling style. (No, I'm not giving up on my journey to optimism, but remembering that even optimists will have bad days.) So without further ado, I present to you Natalie and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day:

     I went to sleep way too late and I woke up very tired and not in the mood to spend eight hours at the office and while I was getting ready for work I splattered makeup all over my white blouse but nothing else I wanted to wear was clean and I was in a hurry so I sprayed some Shout on it and rushed out the door and I could tell that it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

     Outside it was raining and humid and I wondered why I had bothered styling my hair because this weather was a recipe for disaster with my curly locks and I had a twenty minute walk ahead of me and by the time I arrived at work I was sure to look like Carrot Top’s twin sister.

     I think I’ll move to Australia.

    At work everyone seemed to be in a bad mood. People were angry and mean to me for no reason. And someone even wrote something nasty and negative on facebook. (That’s a website that adults go on to write about the things going on in their day that they think everyone else cares about but no one does really.) I hope all those mean people trip on their shoelaces. I hope the next time their phone rings that someone mean is on the other line and tells them something they don’t like hearing.

     I could tell that it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

     I could tell because later I started to work on a story and went for my tape recorder and its batteries were dead so I put in two other ones from my drawer and they didn’t work either so I had to go buy new batteries and when I put the new ones in and hit play I realized that one of my interviews hadn’t been recorded.

     It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

     That’s what it was, because after work when I got to the subway the operators were announcing that the train currently at the station was the last one running and my card wouldn’t let me through the turnstile and I couldn’t figure out why until I realized it wasn’t my subway card but my work ID and then when I finally found the right card the subway doors were about to close so I ran really fast and slipped and fell into a guy on the train.

     I think I’ll move to Australia.

     On the subway it was hot and stuffy and packed from door to door and then the conductor came over the speaker and said that the train wouldn't be stopping in my city so I had to go to another city out of my way and transfer and when I got to that city the train I needed was pulling out just as the train I was on was pulling up so then I had to wait for what felt like three days for my train to finally come to take me home.

     I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I think I’ll move to Australia.

     When I got home there was a package in the mail for me. It was a new dress I had ordered. I tried it on. It was pretty tight and took me 15 minute to zip it shut. I was going to have to start exercising more and I hate exercising. I was going to have to cut down on chocolate and I love chocolate.

     As I got ready for bed, I thought, indeed, it had been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But like my friend Bridget says, some days are like that.

     Even in Australia.

*The events of this story have been grossly oversimplified for the sake of maintaining Alexander’s childlike tone. Had it been written for adults, it might have included a few more colorful words and ended with one very tall, all-the-way full wine glass.