Bah Humbug

I've been wanting to blog, well, I pretty much want to blog every day. But you know, "life gets in the way," as they say. 

But that's it. I'm blogging. I'm hoping it helps "reset" my course a little bit, as this week has been a relative series of unfortunate events.

What a week. All the days are meshing into one another, so I don't even know that I could recount a day-by-day log, but let's just say that pretty much every day this week had something. And by about 2pm every day this week, I've had the thought, "I should just go back to bed and start over again tomorrow." 

Yeah. That kind of week. 

On top of feeling like ships in the night between work, school, commitments, family stuff, appointments, lessons, etc., some of the events of this week include:

A broken fridge, causing a bunch of our food to go bad (and anyone who knows me knows how much that hurts).

A car that intermittently chooses whether or not it feels like starting - always fun when you're out and it's cold.

People bringing their sick kids to our house (major pet peeve of mine). Hello, I'm a germaphobe! Respect the neuroses! 

Bratty kids. Not ours (ours are awesome), but a few select others who were just, well, bratty. PUT MY PILLOWS DOWN, STOP WRESTLING, AND HEY, SHUT UP!

Over 200 emails that I cannot seem to get on top of - the more I work at it, the higher the numbers go. WHY?!?

I'm behind on work. I mean, I'm seeing clients, but haven't stayed on top of patient notes or class prep. Like at all. Patient notes are my least favorite part of the job.

Crappy sleep. I hate that.

Get together with friends getting canceled due to snow. Twice.


Woman in our homeschool group who I have specifically asked not to call me (she calls with a billion questions about EVERYTHING) called our house before 8AM, waking Mark up on the ONE day he could sleep in. She wanted to ask me a question about the field trip that day. You know, the field trip that she knew I wasn't attending. Don't even get me started . . .

Snowy day on busy work day - lots of stress and shoveling and salting between jobs. 

People flaking on things repeatedly. DISLIKE. 

People with just abysmal listening skills or desire, right when I could really use a listening ear. 

Bizarre situations with my clients. (My job is not dull!)

Being totally behind on Christmas stuff. It's so so bad. If it weren't for Gramsy and Pops as well as good friends and Kate's homemade gifts, it would be bare under our half-lit (keep reading) tree. We know we've got to get cracking, but reference above and below. That's right. More's coming.

People suggesting ideas to me instead of just planning something nice (subtext: Stacy will plan/do/organize/handle/take care of it). Boy, does that get old fast. 

The lights on the top 1/3 of our tree going out. Yep. We got tired of our old tree lights doing that, so we opted for a pre-lit tree. Now the pre-lit tree is doing it. This has meant a couple different visits to a couple of different stores to get a tool to find the problem followed by 3 days of trying to diagnose and fix the problem and yet the top 1/3 of the tree remains out. 

Kids STEALING from us (not kidding). It is a wild and very bizarre story, but also kind of a sensitive issue when you know the specifics. Just UGH. We have spent the better part of the past couple of days trying to figure out how to best handle that one. Very, very, VERY awkward. And it also has gotten so much weirder today as more, er, information has emerged.

Let's see, what else. Well, there's the usual winter stuff - cold temperatures/high heating bills, things breaking at inconvenient times, trying to do a million Christmas things, getting thank you gifts to teachers (violin, tae kwon do, art teachers, etc.), being asked to do stuff for other people who can't be bothered to do it themselves (or who obviously have no clue as to how insane our lives are or who don't care), not keeping up on anything in our home or business . . . it's just been one of those weeks.

I cried this morning and I think it made the dog nervous, because she responded by pooping in our room. 

Oh yes, and we're supposed to be getting on a bus to NYC tomorrow morning. You see, months ago, Mark got us all tickets to go to a lovely holiday jazz concert at the Lincoln Center, but the trip got cancelled due to the blizzard that's coming tonight. Merry Christmas!

Oh, and speaking of tonight. It's after 2AM and I'm sitting here typing this. Know why? Because we currently have two massive plumbing leaks - one in our kitchen (if you're picturing collapsed wood, wet towels everywhere, and a frustrated husband - you win!) and a geyser in the basement from our boiler. Mark is on the phone with the emergency plumber now. We're getting 8 inches of snow tomorrow, so we're trying to get this fixed before we're snowed in. And I'm almost positive that calling an emergency plumber on a weekend *and* in the middle of the night doesn't cost anything extra. (We may stick a bow on him and put him under the tree this year. You know, instead of presents.)

So, to recap. It's 3 am. It's 26 degrees.  We have no water and no heat. And the plumber will be here in 5 hours. 

But here's the thing. These are all very first world problems. We're happy. We've even laughed (a lot) amid the tears this week. 

We have a loving family and share a beautiful home. We are not homeless. We are not carless. We have the ability to work and the resources to fix things that break, and even if it sets us back, it's temporary. Sure, it's awful timing with the holidays and all, but it's doable. 

We can stay in when the roads are slick. We have things kids want to steal. We have beds even if our sleep isn't great. We have good friends who do listen. We have work. We have a tree. We have heat and can use space heaters and hang cloth in doorways to help keep our bills (oil heating) reasonable. 

We can replace things. We can be safe. We have plenty to do. We have teachers and mentors to thank. We have abilities. Yes, people get on my every nerve sometimes, but hey, we have options! We have many friends. If some drive us crazy, we can enjoy those who don't, you know? 

First world problems. First world problems. All you need is love, right? THAT we have. In spades. And that's my favorite anyway.

All that being said, is it next week yet? Because this one has been a real doozy.