Did you ever have one of those days on which you are so sad to learn that something your daughter and a friend worked really hard for won't happen because her teacher forgot to send you the email about it a month ago and your husband scheduled a can't-be-changed appointment for him and the kids at that exact time (because he didn't know about the event because you literally didn't get the memo) and then you learn that the phone lines at your office aren't working and about 75% of your team's work is done over the phone and at 11:50 you are told your service window is 1:00-5:00 and you call Verizon at 5:00 and they tell you that you're next on the list and you wait and wait and wait and wait at the office (trying to get some work done but mostly just feeling annoyed) and call Verizon again at 6:30 and they tell you the other rep lied to you and a guy was actually out at 12:30 and again at 1:30 and he found out it was an outside line and he was supposed to call you and tell you the splicer will not be available till tomorrow and oh yes, you could have temporarily transferred your Verizon lines to your VoIP lines which means you actually could have taken incoming calls, and then you go home dejected yet hopeful and you get there and your daughter is still sad about not being able to participate in the event and so you decide singing and dancing to the Hamilton soundtrack will make you both feel better and you do that and it's peace and joy and love for a good 90 seconds until she backs into the opened just-paid-off dishwasher and lands on the bottom rack and dishwasher door which then bends a bit before she can jump off and then you are afraid for a few minutes you need a whole new dishwasher and your husband will need a new heart but it turns out it doesn't leak but the door is definitely torqued and will never close quite the way it should and you put your crying-because-she-left-the-dishwasher-open-after-she-was-being-snarky-with-dad-and-then-could-have-possibly-broken-it kid to bed and at that point you are so burnt out you don't do any of the things on your to-do list before crashing into bed thinking about the fact that you need to give a speech on the power of positivity the next day?
Probably not.
But I'll bet you've had some version of that type of day a bunch of times. It's tempting to just want to put the whole disaster behind you or chalk it up to a case of the Mondays but there can be great benefit from reviewing the game film and thinking about what you can do differently next time and learn something from the experience.
From this particularly crummy Monday I learned - or relearned - the following:
When I start hearing mention of an event, I should put it on the calendar and research it instead of waiting for the information to come to me.
Empower my kids to be persistent in asking questions.
Speaking of questions, be very specific in my questions for Verizon.
Ask to transfer the phone number so we can still receive incoming calls.
Take my evening-shift employee up on the offer to deal with Verizon so can get home to a bummed-out kid at a reasonable time.
Close the dishwasher door before dancing.
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash