It's Monday morning 11am. I've already done a load of laundry, cleaned up dog pee, fed dogs and cats, fed one kid and myself breakfast, packed a lunch, drove a kid to guitar camp, participated in two conference calls, texted guitar teacher for guitar string instructions, posted an ad on Craigslist, made the bed, drank a Starbux and cried at the counter of the Kroger Pharmacy.
Yes, you read that right, cried at the counter of the Kroger Pharmacy. I had gotten up at 5am to be sure I could get the morning stuff done; get teenage boy up and out for camp and swing by the pharmacy to pick up his ADD meds that he needed to take before showing up for camp. I had it timed to the minute with twenty extra to spare. Except when they handed me the wrong prescription and she told me she didn't have the right amount of the correct prescription. She needed at least 20 minutes to back out the old, fill what she could of the new, call another pharmacy for the rest, run a credit that I'd need to take to customer service for a credit on my card. (Insert tears streaming at the Kroger Pharmacy counter)
I work really hard to be sure this kind of thing doesn't rattle me. Today it was the last straw. I'd been away from my house (mission control) for almost a week and today was the day I was to get everything back in order. Except I couldn't. Throw in a healthy dose of mid life PMS and there I was a weepy broken woman who had to admit defeat. My son would again be the last one rolling into camp. This time he did have his lunch with him, we'll count that as a win.
Ironically, 48 hours ago I was sitting on the panel of a women's leadership conference telling about how to keep it all together and be successful. Come on ladies, let's all just pony up the truth. It's impossible to keep this all together.
So, I've dried my tears, apologized to the really nice female pharmacist who handled it all quite well, got my self together and re-framed success. My son is rocking it out at guitar camp no less talented because he was late, the girl woke up oblivious to the events and is happily eating Nutella and toast while watching teen angst backed by canned laughter and enjoying every second of the last few summer months of her tenth year in this life. The husband has listened to my emotional break down again, probably rolled his eyes, vowed to lay low tonight and moved on happily removing troublesome algae from all over Hamilton County.
I'm back at the laptop, buried in a task list, reminding myself that I will never ever ever ever ever get caught up and to do the best I can and smile at the good fortune to be buried daily in a job I love.
