The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

I had a couple of horrible days last week, like awful, miserable days! Funny this post should follow one entitled, The Perfect Day! So, grab some popcorn and a Coke and prepare to be entertained.

 Incident #1: It all started one evening at Costco. Wow! I could start a lot of stories with those words.  First, let me mention that I have been alone for 2 1/2 months, while Scott works in Panama.  I had all of the kids at Costco. With another stressful shopping experience under my belt I got them all seated in the food court while I went to the counter to order them some dinner.  I noticed a gentleman sitting at a table near them, for all I know they were torturing him judging from what he did next.  When my food was ready the gentleman, I use that term loosely, jumped up to help me carry the food.  He walked toward the table where my kids were sitting, which just so happened to be right next to the trash can, but instead of putting their food on the table he threw it away.  Their entire dinner in the trash!

Incident # 2:  That night I was having trouble sleeping. I kept hearing strange noises and so I turned on the TV around 2 AM. I was in the middle of a really great Golden Girls episode when my cable went out.  Just stopped working. Oh, well! I turned off the TV and tried to go to sleep. In the morning I tried to check my e-mail but my Internet was not working and the TV was still out.  I picked up the phone to call my Mom for our daily morning chat, but I had no dial tone.  I grabbed my cell phone and called Verizon, they bundle our TV, Internet, and phone.  After being on hold for at least an hour, I was informed that I had not paid the bill for more than 2 months. What?  Of course I paid my bill.  In fact, I was looking at my online bank statement on my phone while talking to them. I told them exactly when the payments cleared.  They pretty much called me a liar and told me that they would need $418 to get everything turned on again.  I was so annoyed, but I needed my stuff working so I just paid the bill. As I sat there I started thinking what my options were and why they claimed I never paid my bill and why the heck they would just completely shut everything off without a warning.  A light bulb went on in my head.  My cell phone is also with Verizon-not part of the home bundle. I checked my cell phone account and sure enough I had a more than $500 CREDIT on my cell phone.  Yeah, I was paying the wrong Verizon for two months. Now I am waiting for a refund from the cell phone company.  I wish I could say that this has never happened before, but I paid the wrong water company for almost a year until I caught my mistake.  Luckily, they never shut my water off.

Incident #3: I put a load of laundry in the machine and then set out to take Atley to the bus stop. It was about 8:30 AM and my day already sucked. One of the tasks on my single-mom list was getting the yard work finished. Mowing the lawn with Harley running for the street every chance she gets is a long and laborious process. I finally backed the van out of the garage put a movie in it for her, strapped her into the car seat and finished my work.  Tired, hot, & thirsty, I went back into the house for some water and air conditioning. Nash, Harley and I headed to the basement.  When I put my sweaty barefeet on the carpet I noticed it was soaking wet. I had a flood on my hands.  I ran into the laundry room. As a special present for his overwrought mother Atley had decided to plug the sink that our washing machine drains into before he left for school. Not only did it overflow, my entire laundry room and part of the basement were soaked. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon vacuuming up water.  Meanwhile, hurricane Harley had worked her way up stairs to the fridge where she was pouring out a 2 liter bottle of rootbeer and breaking eggs all over the kitchen floor.

Incident #4:  That afternoon we headed to Atley's school for an open house to view some of the projects they had been working on.  The teacher cornered me to discuss Atley's behavior, like I didn't know it was a problem. I was stressed and I might have been a little short with her when I said, "Look there are only 3 days of school left, you are just going to have to deal with it. At least, you will be through with him at the end of the week. I have at least 10 more years."

Incident # 5:  Exhaustion doesn't begin to describe my feelings that evening when I went to get the mail. What I really wanted to do was turn on the TV for the kids and take a nice long nap, but our TV was still not working.  I grabbed the mail from the box and right on top was a letter with no stamp and no name.  Just our street address typed in big block letters.  Oh, maybe it was a party invitation or even better a big wad of money to help me make up for the extra $418 I had spent that morning.  I couldn't be so lucky. It was an anonymous letter reaming me for my lack of social conformity. The letter explained that anyone with an ounce of common sense knew that proper etiquette dictated lawns never be mowed before 10AM on the weekdays and not until after Noon on the weekend.  Okay, really! I guess I am an idiot. It was a Tuesday morning, need I mention it wasn't even a summer morning.  No, the kids were all in school still. I thought most normal people were either at work or on their way.  Who knew I lived in a neighborhood of three-toed sloths!  But, instead of getting angry which is my usual M-O, I just burst into tears.  Someone should have stuck a fork in me because I was DONE!!!

I put the kids to bed at 6:30 to avoid anymore catastrophes and I was asleep on the couch by 8PM.  The next morning was a brand new day. The TV was working again.  Life couldn't be too bad with the premiere of Dallas to look forward to. I glanced at the pictures I had taken at Atley's school the previous day and I counted my blessings.  It had been a rough 24 hours but things can always be much worse. 

Atley's Lakota Indian Village and his term paper on rock pythons. Atley was accepted into the Advanced Academic Program this year.  Out of 11,500 candidates, he was one of only a thousand that were accepted.  He is a handful, but he is also a boy genius. 

Atley's class spent the year studying the migration and life cycle of Monarch Butterflies.  It took all of Harley's energy to control her ornery side long enough not to squish that butterfly.

The butterfly flew right onto Nash's chubby cheek. The same part I like to chew on first thing in the morning. It is scrumptious.

We celebrated our survival of the day from hell with some well-deserved frozen yogurt.