Today was supposed to be a huge high point for me — the day of my first big book signing.

Here’s how the day has gone.

This morning, I had a minor glitch with my replacement DVR. I think, and hope, it’s nothing, but my first thought was, “Oh, no, they’ve given me a lemon to replace my lemon.”

I arrived at my book signing and discovered that, instead of the 23 books I though I had, I had only 14 — and one of those had a ripped cover. My publish-on-demand company shorted me, and (perhaps because there weren’t as many books as intended in the shipping box) failed to pack the books as well as they should have, allowing them to slosh around. I was furious with the company for shorting me and furious with myself for not having examined the box more carefully when it first arrived.

So now, I really was in danger of running out of books at my big book signing … right?

Well, no. I only had five customers. Five customers is better than no customers, but I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I tried to publicize the event as well as I could, but I don’t know if I did as well as I might have. Or maybe people just weren’t interested.

Dennis and Andrea at New Covenant Christian Bookstore were great to me, however, and they took five of the leftover books on consignment. So the book is now available at New Covenant.

Tonight, on my way to a banquet, I had to stop by an ATM machine and make a deposit. Believe it or not, juggling my wallet, my checkbook, the money and the envelope, I managed to “deposit” a completely empty envelope. Luckily, I recognized what I’d done right away, and I immediately repeated the deposit, this time with actual money. I’ve e-mailed the credit union and I’ll call Monday to touch base, although it should be pretty obvious what happened.

It has been that kind of day. I’m grouchy, and tired, and I have to go to Sewanee tomorrow for mission trip planning. I’m excited about the planning, and about seeing my LEAMIS friends, but part of me just wishes I could curl up on the couch tomorrow. I’ll be very busy with play rehearsals for the next month and a half, and my down time is going to be scarce.