Stressful day

[pegkerr]

This was an extremely stressful day.

I went to church by myself. The girls begged off, saying that they were fighting colds ("and we've been doing worship every day for a week," Delia said a little dolefully.) I felt like a pushover, but I left them and came by myself. It was absolutely pouring rain all day. After yesterday, it seemed a bit much. Church was not the respite I hoped it would be; I wanted to talk to several people, but they were all absent today. The text for the sermon was definitely not one I wanted or needed to hear today, from Luke 12:49-56

"I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! ... Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

Thanks a lot.

Came home, talked to kijjohnson, a conversation in which we compared the various ways in which our lives sucked. Then I chivvied the girls into the room and started talking about rearrangement of furniture. Side skirmishes occurred where Rob was obviously bristling about some of the decisions we are contemplating to get stuff out of the room so that we can rearrange (because he cannot bear to get rid of ANYTHING). This made all of us tense. We still have a very long way to go. I am trying to decide whether to get a sewing table like this one





so the girls have a space to work, but it would take much less space than the table Rob got for the sewing machine (which doesn't go with anything in the room and takes up much too much room). It folds down quite cunningly, and it's a great way to store the machine out of sight:





but geez, is this the best way to spend $200 right now? Rob's in rather a snit about this, too, because he feels we're snubbing the table he got for the sewing machine. Among other grievances.

I balanced the checkbook. I decided to take our CDs of the 7th Harry Potter book back to the bookstore because they were defective, with a bunch of skips and I wanted to exchange them. So I went out in the pouring rain to run the errand. The first bookstore didn't have any of the CDs left. They told me I could order them and they'd be in the store in a week.

This ticked me off. I had come out in the rain and gotten drenched for nothing (since I couldn't find an umbrella). I stopped at the Starbucks next door and drowned my sorrows with a coffee and an espresso brownie. Then I decided to drive to the Mall of America Barnes & Noble to see if they had the CDs there.

So I did. And it was there that I realized that the checkbook was missing from my purse.

Understand now: in twenty-five years of having a checking account, I have never NEVER EVER misplaced my checkbook. I always keep it in my purse, and I've never had a purse stolen. I hadn't used it, but could it have fallen out of my purse at the first store?

I drove home to look for it. No checkbook. I drove back to the first store and check the Starbucks, too. No one there had turned it in. I entertained for about thirty seconds the idea of driving back to the Mall of America to look there, but who are we kidding? I hadn't a snowball's chance in hell in finding it there if I'd dropped it there. And besides, I couldn't have dropped it there in the store--I'd discovered it was missing the instant I opened my purse. Unless my purse was open and it had dropped out of my purse in a parking lot?

I drove home and tore up the house. For hours. The girls' room is an absolute shambles, and I had to pick through all that crap, scattered all over the place. And all the other obvious places: you know how you get when you empty a purse compulsively, knowing it's the tenth time you've checked, but goddammit, it's GOT to be there because I NEVER put it anywhere else. Nothing. I was so upset I couldn't eat dinner.

Sunday night's our family night, and Delia came up with an excellent suggestion: we would watch "It's a Wonderful Life." How absolutely perfect. When George Bailey kicked over the table in the living room where he had painstakingly built a model bridge because he couldn't find the money and his whole life was going to hell anyway, I had tears rolling down my face. I felt like I knew just how George Bailey felt.

About a half an hour after we finished the movie, Fiona found the checkbook where I'd placed it, on the edge of the bookshelf where we keep the videos. I don't know why I put it down there, but thank goodness she found it. I wouldn't have been able to sleep tonight otherwise.

The weather has sucked all day. The girls' room is still a mess, but we're a little farther along than we were. We watched a good movie tonight.

And I know where the checkbook is.

Comments

[snippy]

May G-d bless you and keep you, and cause his countenance to shine upon you, and bring you peace.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It is good to know where your checkbook is. Rather like a towel, especially today!

[naomikritzer]

I went to church with my grandmother today because it was my turn to drive her. She attends Judson Baptist Church (where I ran into Fiona one time this summer -- she was there with friends). The pastor commented that if she could hand off one reading this year to someone ELSE to come up with a sermon on, this one would be it. And then she noted that this reading made a certain logical sense to her simply because she'd just come back from the big trip to Oregon to visit the family, where she'd spent days and days having to carefully avoid certain subjects less anyone step on a land mine. And then she noted that this sermon was NEVER going up on the web site.

So if you don't much care for that reading, you're in good company. :-)

And UGH to the checkbook thing. I'm glad it turned up.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

Youch, what a day. Breate deep, it's over!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I own that table. It is FABULOUS. Because not only does it store the machine and become a very comfortable sewing table, but it stores all the bits and bobs -- now I can find all my thread, all my needles, all my scissors, and all my pins. I love that table.

I'm very very glad you found your checkbook. I know that sickening dropping feeling.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

You've convinced me. I ordered it last night and we'll get it Friday. Can't wait!

Hang in there.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Deep breathing. Slow, deep breathing. Try five slow, deep breaths every time you feel nuts. O2 is your friend.

I know this kind of stress -- I live this all the time right now. It makes you nuts with things like The Checkbook Incident.

Try this out -- it helps me. The item that has been lost is almost always within 18" of where you last saw it. This may mean papers have slid over it, or it's changed in a 3D manner in some way -- but it will almost always be where you left it in the sequence.

If you'd used the checkbook at your first stop, you would have called home, asked the girls to check the last place you were (getting the CDs, perhaps?) and poof, checkbook.

I had my cell phone fall out of my purse in the Costco parking lot. And knew this because the woman who found it picked it up and called me, saying she'd leave it at the customer service desk.

Stars to her crown, please.

[aome.livejournal.com]

Ugh, what a day. And no, that's not the most comforting reading, is it? Will and I have been discussing religion lately, and it's not really what we needed, either. Also, the priest at that service is a SE Asian immigrant, which is fine, but he's hard to understand sometimes, and that didn't help our sense of connection to the service, either. (Oddly enough, I never had trouble understanding the Nigerian priest we had at our other parish even though he, too, is heavily accented.)

I'm glad you found your checkbook, though. And yay for a good movie - that helps a LOT, I know. What did you see?

Hopefully all the rain is now past (it's heading for us :P) and you'll have a better week. Btw, did you ever get the card I sent 2 weeks ago? I sent someone else a postcard at the same time and never heard from her either, so I'm wondering if something happened to those items.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear, my bad manners. Yes, I did receive it and I love the magnet. And thank you! I should have acknowledged it immediately, but I think it came in right when we were in the middle of the flurry of preparing the girls for camp. Forgive me!

We watched Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" for a movie.

[aome.livejournal.com]

Phew - I'm glad it got there. And meanwhile - you can see how well my memory works. Now that you've reminded me, I do recall reading which movie you'd chosen. My reading-retention skills apparently aren't too sharp on a Monday morning. :P

[pazlazuli.livejournal.com]

I am so glad you found your checkbook. And that the rain has stopped (although it remains gloomy and it might rain again). I like "It's a Wonderful Life" much better than the sermon text. A good way to end a stressful day.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Ok, it seems that I've gotta get decked out in my pink spangly gown, grab my heavy duty magic wand, and then yoink your life (along with Kij Johnson's) by the scruff of its neck and shake some gol-durned sense into it so it'll behave, don'tcha know...

[eal.livejournal.com]

I think it's a wonderful table. I may have to keep that in mind as a future purchase. It would certainly make my sewing situation better if I lose my sewing room.