Wednesday got off to a lousy start. I rolled out of bed groggy and unrested. I was cold. My bath water was tepid.

When I got to work, things got worse. My eyes began to water and my nose began to run. I started sneezing uncontrollably. I was a mess. I wanted to go home sick, but Nick called to say he wouldn’t be in, and Jeff had a dentist appointment midday.

That might have been fine by itself, but then Lifehacker linked to my debt-free post at Get Rich Slowly, and things got even worse. Generally a link from Lifehacker is a good thing. In this case, however, my server came to a grinding halt. This isn’t the first issue I’ve had, which made things even more frustrating. It over three hours for things to get back to normal, and I was a nervous wreck the entire time.

Because I was too busy fretting, I couldn’t get anything written. It wouldn’t have mattered anyhow, because the phones kept ringing. Can you imagine? Actually having to deal with customers at a job?

By midday I realized that I had overbooked my evening. I had promised Mark and Tim that I would meet with them to discuss their new book, and to talk about publishing. But I had also told Paul and Amy Jo that I could help them move their appliances out of storage. Oops. I had to cancel my second engagement.

The day dragged on, and I seemed at my wits’ end.

In the evening, my luck changed.

Because I had to work late (to cover for the sick Nick), I skipped coming home and drove directly to dinner. As I travelled, I listened to Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, our book group choice for January. I love it. I haven’t read a book this good since Proust or Moby Dick. (“Oh great,” Kris muttered when I heaped this praise upon it.)

I ate at Cha Cha Cha, a cheap Mexican place that qualifies as “comfort food” for me. I ordered a lime Jarrito to go with my tacos, but just as my server was about to open it, I noticed they served a few mixed drinks. “I’ll take a mojito instead,” I said. A mojito sounded perfect.

The mojito wasn’t quite perfect, but it was strong! It seemed to be made of only rum and mint. When I stood up after finishing, I could tell I had a slight buzz. From one drink! I was plenty safe to drive, though, so I headed off to my meeting.

What a meeting! I don’t know what I had been expecting, but I came away inspired. I know Mark from the Writers Guild, but I had never met Tim before. He’s a confident, energetic entrepreneur. He came prepared with all sorts of notes, and he had articles and clippings to give to me. It was awesome. I left feeling excited about the directions Get Rich Slowly could take. (“Get Rich Slowly action figures!” Kris said when I told her about my evening.)

At home, I did a before-bedtime check of my site stats. It had been a good day. In fact, it had been a great day, especially from a financial perspective. My sites made $422.12 yesterday, surpassing an 8-month old mark. (On April 10th, my sites generated $384.88 in revenue. If only they would do this every day…)

Though I had started the day cranky, I went to bed happy.