It happened again today.

I had just returned home from work. It was a long commute today because of the rain. Traffic was horrendous. I had already asked my wife to pick up Av from day care since I was almost certain I wouldn't make it on time. She even went to the store for me to pick up cheese for dinner -- which I would be making.

But I ended up getting home a good 30 minutes after she did. She had already started dinner. Av crawled out and greeted me, but obviously wanted his mom instead. He was getting hysterical. I took over dinner -- which was, at this point, as simple as adding cream of mushroom soup, stirring, PAMming a casserole dish, and putting it in the oven. Simple, right?

Maybe it was Av's screaming. Or the flourescent lights. The overcast day. My recent confinement to the driver's seat. But the kitchen became very small and cluttered. I was bumping into the bar stool to the side of the kitchen island. I stepped on a stray pretzel that Avi dropped. and then a purple letter "O" refrigerator magnet. I bumped into a plastic bag full of old stove burner covers to be recycled and they crashed to the ground. Which started Avi crying again. Every moment the kitchen walls closing in. My body feeling so close to every edge of the room. my knees almost giving way as I felt that I could do nothing more than shrink my body as much as possible and just stand in one place.

Or run.

Which is precisely what I did. I excused myself and went upstairs. Took a good 35 minute nap. I felt extremely guilty that K had to put a cranky toddler to bed on her own tonight. But I completely shut down.

I was awoken when they came upstairs so I could take the casserole out of the over and get everything ready for dinner for us. By that time I felt fine. I guess I simply needed a Ctrl-Alt-Del for my head...

The thing is -- this hasn't happened for a long time. I had even flown recently -- the middle seat even! -- with no such problems. I'm thinking it was probably related to my not taking my ADD meds this morning -- and the multiple stimuli compounded by the stressors I had.

Whatever. I'm just glad it's gone and I'm doing better. And I'm definitely going to make sure I get my Adderall in tomorrow morning...

As for tonight -- watched the pilot of this new CBS law drama called Century City -- set in Los Angeles in the year 2030. Stars Hector Elizondo (Chicago Hope) and Nestor Carbonell (Suddenly Susan, but I always think of him as Bat Manuel from the live action "The Tick" series). I thought it would be pretty schlocky for a "science fiction" show, but they did the year 2030 pretty tastefully. It appears we have the following to look forward to 26 years from now: