It was back to the real world for us yesterday. Alarm clocks and picking out school clothes and OH THE HUMANITY WHY IS IT STILL DARK OUTSIDE? It hit me like a kick in the pants. Fortunately Caroline was ready to go and energized by the prospect that there are only fifty more school days until summer.
After I dropped her off at school, I came home and played mental gymnastics with myself to find some sort of motivation to resume my Couch to 5K program. Yes, I realize this has been the longest journey ever from the couch to a 5k, but I keep getting sidetracked by things like illnesses, school vacations and remembering that I really don’t enjoy running. However, the warm weather and the spring flowers are taunting me with the reality that it’s only a matter of about one month before I’ll be in a swimsuit.
Which is also why I ate a healthy lunch of couscous and veggies while thinking about cheeseburgers and crispy taco plates and all the foods that taste better than vegetables.
On a side note, one of my friends has been seeing a doctor about some thyroid issues and the doctor has been on her about her diet. She asked if she ate any vegetables and my friend responded that she eats carrots. The doctor informed her that carrots should be considered a RECREATIONAL vegetable only. Why would anyone want to eat a carrot for recreational purposes? Isn’t that what Hostess Cupcakes are for?
I spent most of day catching up on all the things I neglected over Spring Break so I’ll spare you most of the details because do you really want to know the intricacies of me paying our cell phone bill? But I did finally get Caroline signed up for a week of day camp this summer which I’d been meaning to do before all the sessions filled up. P came home to work on some landscape bids and I told him I signed her up. He asked what the total cost was and I told him the price included the shuttle service to and from camp every day. (Sadly, it’s more than $15.00)
He agreed it was a good price and totally worth it since she loved it so much last year. Then he laughingly suggested that one of our friends who works out that way could just drive her back and forth every day. I said that would make the whole thing about 1,000 times more enjoyable because it would eliminate the whole bus ride with no air-conditioning unless you count the breeze from the rolled down windows. Which I don’t. And he looked at me incredulously and said, “That’s one of the best parts of the camp experience. The fact that you don’t like it speaks volumes about your personality.”
Umm…sorry. Clearly I am a freak of nature. Who doesn’t enjoy riding on a bus with no air-conditioning in June? Yes. I’m the weird one.
Anyway, while P and I were debating the joys to be found in riding on a hot bus and how it relates to a complete camp experience, he happened to glance at our front door and notice the piece of plywood that still resides where we are supposed to have a piece of beveled glass. A piece of beveled glass that was broken by our door guy during installation and promised to be replaced, oh, about six weeks ago. And then six weeks before that. And then maybe six weeks before that.
We’ve gotten so used to the piece of plywood and the extra-classy touch it adds to the living room that we occasionally forget that we are still in need of a piece of glass. Not to mention the fact that I’ve called Door Guy enough times on my cell phone that I’m about 97% sure it’s on a list of numbers he no longer answers. The same can be said of our home phone.
However, we haven’t really called him using P’s cell phone, otherwise known as our ace in the hole, so there was decent chance he might answer P’s call. Sure enough, Door Guy answered.
P reminded him who we were and that we’d been waiting on a piece of glass for our front door since sometime in early November. We also needed some weather-stripping he’d said he would install when he came back with the glass. P was very polite and inquired if maybe there had been some problem with the glass and could we please get on his schedule to get the weather-stripping done since the weather is really starting to heat up and we’d hate to duck tape the whole thing to keep in the bought air like we did this winter. (P didn’t actually say the part of the duck tape and the bought air. I added that.)
The truth is P tends to be much nicer than me when dealing with these types of issues. People who know us in real life probably find that hard to believe because I appear to be nicer when the truth is that I’m biting the inside of my lip until my eyes start to bleed and a sarcastic comment comes shooting out of my mouth. P is usually more patient when dealing with service problems and saves most of his anger and frustration for inanimate objects that don’t work they way he thinks they should.
P hung up the phone and told me Door Guy apologized for the delay but explained there had been some problems finding the glass. Well, sure. Because we live in a major metropolitan area and I’m sure no one in town knows how to make a piece of beveled glass. (See? Sarcastic comment. Shooting out.)
He said he’d get us on his schedule and come by in the next few days to install the weather-stripping. And then I believe he promptly hung up and added P’s cell number to his list of DO NOT ANSWER numbers.
I hope I’m wrong. But if I were a betting kind of girl, I’d say the chances of us ever seeing Door Guy again rank up there with the odds of me riding a school bus in June for the fun of it.
***Edited to add that OKAY, I GET IT. IT’S DUCT TAPE. I was tired, it was late and I lost the entire post the first time I tried to save it. But I’m leaving it as “duck” because it makes me happy.