"Only me"

You know those weeks when everything seems to go wrong? I’m glad that I still have a smile on my face after all of it.

Picture it…

Tuesday, I went home to comfort Karter Lee. Laugh if you will, but this dog is terrified of thunder and storms. It was raining pretty hard, and she was home alone, so I figured I’d go home to have lunch. I walked into our kitchen to find that Karter Lee had went “dumpster diving” while we were all at work. It was one of those times where you shut your eyes for a minute, hoping that the magical powers of Samantha from Bewitched had suddenly been bestowed upon you. I tried blinking it away, to no avail.

It took me 15 minutes to pick up the trash that she had strung all over our dining room and kitchen. Strips of plastic, banana peels, yogurt containers, paper plates, Ziploc bags, Walmart bags, everything you can imagine. After I cleaned up the mess, my arm hit a little porcelain dish that mom had on the counter, and it fell onto the floor, along with all of its contents. Fun times.

I came home later with intentions of sweeping the floor and swiffering. I cleaned the floors then, broke out the vacuum. Somehow, while I was vacuuming, the cord caught the dog water dish that was next to our bookshelf in the dining room. It spilled all over the floor, some of which seeped into the living room carpet.

Just as soon as I cleaned up THAT mess, I realize that even though I had put clothes in the washer, the washer wasn’t running. I went out to investigate. The washer had filled with water, but hadn’t started. I flipped it off, then, back on. Nothing. I slammed the lid down, (which has worked in the past) nothing. What a nightmare. Mom came home and checked it out too. We thought that maybe something had hung up underneath. So, we pulled all the sopping wet clothes out of the washer (Did I mention that, of course, it was a HUGE load?), there was nothing underneath it.

Our “fix-it” man came by yesterday. He said that he could get the part that was needed to fix it, but it would be next Tuesday before he could get back to it. Great, I thought. Meanwhile, we had a load of still-wet clothes lying in a plastic tub that were now starting to smell (we had forgotten about them, to be honest, after the initial failed attempt at trying to get the washer to work). Then, I got an idea.

I couldn’t let our clothes sour. So, I thought I would fill the tubs with water, put a little detergent in them and let the clothes soak like they did in the old days. Not that hard, right?? Wrong. I soaked, pushed around, soaked, pushed around. As I was almost done wringing them out, mom came out and said “You know, we could’ve taken those to the Laundromat.” Are you kidding me? Why the hell hadn’t I thought of that?? It never crossed my mind.

I had to laugh at myself. I’m not going to be worth shooting today, my arms are so sore after wringing out what seemed to be 75 items of clothes.

I hadn’t felt that stupid since I was doing my very first billing at the Journal. I was so timid when I first started there. I know, I am a far cry from that girl now. I hated to even ask small questions, I was new and intimidated. I just didn’t want to mess anything up. That being said, after I had printed off probably 300 invoices, I was ready to put them in envelopes and mail them off. I seriously licked 300 envelopes. Three hundred. When I was finishing up the last few, Mr. John brought an envelope moistener over and put it on my desk without saying a word. Holy Moley. I must’ve given him the look that was a cross between mortified and NOW YOU BRING THIS TO ME! Lol. I still have to laugh about that.

Some advice Girls, always look at the big picture. Sometimes “walk-in-out-of-the-rain” sense is better than book smarts (a department that I’m sometimes lacking in). And never, ever be too afraid to ask for an envelope moistener.