I Have Never Faced So Much Opposition to a Post
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 4:21PM So, yesterday I started a post in which I was lamenting all of the things that had gone wrong, from the middle of the night all the way into the afternoon. It was actually the first time in a long time that I was writing fairly freely, and using some humor to offset the effects of our day. I clicked the "save" button and a new screen popped up, which read,"We're sorry, but we are unable to process your request at this time."
Well, of course. And it's really too bad, because that might have been the best written, well thought out, chock-full of great humor post that I have composed.
And as a side note, do I think I'm British? I keep writing humore. Actually that's more like latin, isn't it? I suppose "humour" would be more British. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing. That's right. Just useless information for you to have rolling around in your head.
Back to yesterday's post...I wish I could replicate what I had written, but things don't work like that, do they? Unless you have a photographic memory. Which I don't. Instead I'll try to recap, using similarly wonderful writing and humor.
Around 4pm I just wanted to burst into tears. There wasn't a particular reason, but there were many reasons at the same time. It just would have made me feel better. I didn't cry, but instead I sat down at the table and started writing, which did help me feel a bit more cheerful. Shortly after that moment where I wanted to cry a river, things had gotten quiet and everyone was doing something that made them happy: Eliana was playing with play-dough, Christian was at karate, and Michaela was talking with her cousin on the phone. For the first time that day things didn't feel totally out of control.
The reality is that nothing was ever really out of control, but when you're a control freak, with OCD, a germaphobe, and a crazy person in general, it doesn't take much to make you feel like things have reached the "Houston, we have a problem" level. Let me break down the day's troubles...
-because Eliana went to sleep at 6:30pm, she woke up at 1:30am, and she was hungry. This is what happens when you skip dinner in order to catch a few zzzz's. She ate a cheesestick (in record time) and then she was pretty awake, as you can imagine.
-Mike had some things to take care of before his trip to Princeton (to defend his dissertation). I was in charge of waking him up. Do you know what it's like to wake up a rock? That's frozen in ice? It's hard. That's what it is like to try to wake up Mike...he's what you might call a hard sleeper.
-Some guys were coming at 8:30am in order to replace our furnace. I didn't know if what they were going to carry out and in was going to be large, so I needed to make a path from the front door to the dungeon basement in order for them to be able to do what they needed to do. I worked on this project from the time I got the last kid settled in bed (9:30 or so?) until 1:30 in the morning. I think it was actually 1:24 when I sat down to look at the computer for a few minutes before heading to bed. Oh, I was also waiting for the laundry to be done so I could switch it for the last time that evening.
-Our entryway, dining room, and kitchen were a bit of a mess.
-Michaela was supposed to have a hair appointment at 9am. She had been anticipating this for several days and was very excited about it.
-I needed to pack Mike's clothes for his trip. Sure, he could have done it himself, but the truth is I'm better at it. I can pack his dress clothes in a way that keeps them from getting all wrinkled. He can cut the grass, I will pack the bags.
-Christian needed a pumpkin carved for Dad's Night (Thursday). Mike got me up to draw the design on the pumpkin, and then he carved it and carried it over for Christian. He also got a chance to see the Dad's Night things that were hanging on the wall and in the classroom, since he was going to be out of town that evening.
-Mike needed to figure out how to get to the airport.
Now. All of that took place before 8:30am. Since Eliana had not gone to sleep until after 3am, and three minutes later Mike woke me up to draw on a pumpkin, I was a little tired. But, let's continue...
-After the men arrived to take care of the furnace, I left with Michaela for her appointment (Eliana came along, too). I called to say I was running late, and she said we should reschedule since by the time I got there it would be time for her next appointment. So, I did reschedule, and then turned around and headed back home.
-I called Mike to tell him I was home and he said,"You can take me to the airport!" This was a good thing, of course; we didn't have to pay for a cab or something. I finished getting his clothes ready, and he came home and packed his books. He needed to print out a copy of his paper to take with him on the plane, to go over, and stuff. The printer got through about 170 pages and then the toner ran out.
-Mike tried to check his flight's gate (at DFW you have to know ahead of time because one airline might have flights out of several different terminals), but our mouse wouldn't work. The batteries died (it's wireless) (hence, the batteries...duh).
-We really needed to go...his departure time was quickly getting closer.
-There were three men going in and out of both the basement and the house. Wearing their shoes. Their outside/basement cockroach poop/muddy shoes. This alone was enough to undo me for the day. Two of them were careful to wipe their shoes on the towel I set out for just that. One of them was kind of a space cadet about it.
-While trying to help Mike figure out which gate we needed to go to while driving there, using his Blackberry, I did things like type in "gnats" instead of "gmail". Why do Smartphones make me feel so stupid?
-When I returned home I got to work reserving a car for Mike once he landed. This is a strange thing for me to have to do. Packing the suitcase...I am excellent at. Taking care of renting a car? Not so much my area of expertise. I will almost always do something wrong. My first three attempts were unsuccessful. For example, as I tried to find out where to rent a car through Budget at the Newark airport I, first, used the wrong letters for the airport code. That was easy enough to rectify. (What a word.) Then, the website told me that the area I entered didn't exist. Finally, I was informed that the closest rental car place was 37 miles away (that's a best guess...at this point I don't remember details). On my very last try I managed to procure a vehicle for my husband at the proper location, on airport property. I saw the confirmation page and was greatly relieved and went to check our email for the confirmation email they send, as well as inform Mike that he was good to go.
-There was no email.
-There was no email.
-There was still no email.
-I called the customer service line and, shockingly enough, was able to confirm that the reservation went through, and was valid. I got the number and passed it along to Mike. I got the size wrong-economy instead of standard. That was not ideal, but it couldn't have been as bad as when we thought we were getting something along the lines of a Jeep Cherokee, and ended up with something like a Subaru Outback-for five people plus our luggage for a ski trip and a pack and play and a stroller. The five of us getting in that car was like me getting in my favorite jeans from two years ago. Except we actually made it in and got the doors shut. So, not like me and my jeans at all.
-That bit about the jeans deserves its own "-", even though it technically doesn't have anything to do with the things that went wrong yesterday. But, it is something that is very wrong every day, so why not?
-Eliana made it to school and Michaela and I hung around; we both were on the computer for a while (in true overcompensating fashion, I let her play a computer game because I knew she was upset about her haircut). Later in the afternoon, after she burst into tears because I wouldn't call her aunt to see if she could talk with her cousin (Michaela wants me to call each day and I feel like a giant swarm of gnats) (see, sometimes I mean to type "gnats"), it suddenly dawned on me that she was not just sad about the haircut, but also because her dad had left. Points for being tuned in to my child! Minus points for being seven hours late!
-Last but not least, my blog ate my brilliant, witty, and yet poignant post as a dramatic finale near the end of my day.
What happened next was pretty much a normal evening, plus the Dad's Night experience. Which, me playing the role of "Dad" isn't normal at all, so, scratch that. We all headed over to the school so that I could take pictures and see all of the things that the kids have been working on for the last couple of weeks for this evening that honors the dads.
They plan a night full of Texan fun, and our evening included things like putting our fingerprints on horsey coloring pages and eating chili and guessing which silhouette was Christian's. Also, I had to guess which essay was his; they each wrote about their dads. I was pretty sure his was the one about the dad who was finishing his dissertation on John Calvin.
Speaking of dissertations on John Calvin...Mike had to leave town in order to defend said dissertation. He called this afternoon to say that his oral exam had gone fine. In other words,
HE IS DONE!
And on that happy note, I think so is this post.
Reader Comments (11)
Holy crap dude!!!! Day from hell anyone?! Sorry for the crass comment here, LOL...but I imagine you can hear me saying it nonetheless?!?! ;o)
So....you failed to mention how much chocolate you ate? Because in all honesty I think I would have been scarfing down brownies and Halloween candy at about 9 am....
You are super mom! Super wife! SUPER WOMAN!! Christina to the rescue! She may goof up here or there, but she'll GIT 'ER DONE!
Oh and CONGRATULATIONS MIKE!!!! All them years....I bet you guys are both so relieved to just BREATHE now!! WOOHOOOOOOO!
Good grief Christina. You had an entire week take place in 24 hours and a difficult week at that. Writing it does help though, doesn't it? Especially if you can put a humorous (humourous) spin on it. It kind of reshapes the whole experience in your mind.
Congrats to Mike!
Mercy! What a day! I hope you know you were PREDESTINED to have a crazy day for some PREDESTINED reason God only knows. Glad you got to get a release and write and re-write about it.
Oh, you poor dear.
Holla, Mike!
Jen-for me, it's soda these days for coping. Hence my ever-broadening backside. Oh, and I suppose there are the Peanut M&M's that I helped polish off...
Mindee-I was actually enjoying the writing...that hadn't happened, truly, in a while.
Missy-I can't wait for the reveal!
LJW-Holla!
Sorry about your day. But so happy for you all that Mike is done. That has to be a big relief. I am so looking forward to that day when Andrew is done too. But unfortunately he is just starting his dissertation so it will be awhile. Glad you made it through such an awful crazy day.
Wow. That was an exciting day. Great pic of you guys and congrats to Mike!
So happy for you that the dissertation is done, Christina! That's many years of perseverance, I KNOW.
So sorry about the insane day! We had a parallel one this weekend that included losing our keys and being stranded w/o our cell phone. Anyway, whew. Those days are killer. Fortunately we had just studied the potato famine of Ireland and I could get through on "at least we're not going through that." :)
Yay Mike! What a relief!!!
Congrats to Mike, Sorry and well wishes to you, and complete sympathy on losing written work. That happened to me with a post a while ago - and happens to me with comments on other peoples posts all the time - but not quite often enough that I copy each one before hitting done. Sighness.