Friday was…interesting. One of those days you throw a fit of frustration, jumping up and down like a two year old’s tantrum, or break something and yell like an adult-sized tantrum…or you just laugh.
It began like any other day. Waking myself and my Little One up and starting our day by telling God “Good morning, God!”, praying together, getting dressed, eating and taking our faithful animal companion outside to do his “business”. Just a normal day.
Festival was in town so we decided to see the Dairy Show…but we were running late and didn’t make it. Ok, no problem, we’ve seen cows before. So, we’ll see the next show, the Chinese Acrobats…but again delays happened. That’s alright, we’ve seen Chinese Acrobats before, too. Well, ok, we’ll see the show where humans interact with sharks, which my Little One was very excited about. Before we leave the house, I take a birthday card to mail at the post office. Now to the festival!
Where we once lived, just finding parking would’ve been a monumental task that may take hours; however, in our new hometown, it was amazingly simple. Bam! Found a close spot. Since it was at the post office, I decided to check our mail first. (Yes, I forgot the card, that remained waiting patiently in the car to be mailed.) On to the sharks!
We walked to where the shark exhibit was said to be in the schedule book but there was a lady singing country western songs. Where are the sharks? I ask and no one knows so they direct us to the Sea Lions. Ok, that makes sense since they, too, are ocean dwellers…although they would obviously need separate tanks! We walk to the Sea Lions but, nope, no sharks. The person there says, “That was last year. Didn’t you look at the schedule?” Yep, sure did. Evidently someone working for the festival had copied last year’s schedule to work from but didn’t delete last year’s shark exhibit from all of the schedules until later printings…and I just happened to get one of those containing the error. Ok, that’s fine. Trying to think of something that would help erase the disappointment for my Little One, I suggested we go pet the animals from around the world again, and that seemed to do the trick!
After petting the zebra and giraffe, the camels, watusi and nilgai (possibly my favorite, as it licked with its black tongue my forearm as though it was a lollipop!), we had to move on to our next item on the to-do list…
I had to drive about an hour to get something I’d ordered. On the way to our destination, I remembered the card I was supposed to have mailed but told myself “It’s ok. Just mail it when you pick up your order since they have a mail slot.” And on we went. But when I got there, my Little One was hungry so we opted to eat first.
(Note: I’ve noticed something about what happens to the brain when there have been too many things to keep track of for too long a period of time, when multitasking becomes the expectation for years on end, when working in a high stress job: It gets distracted easily and skips like an old vinyl record that’s been scratched. It begins at the beginning of the song and then scratches across the entire song, catching only the remaining few words. Now back to the story…)
So, we stopped to eat first…and then…the main reason we went there, to pick up my order, was gone from my mind as I skipped to the other things we also needed to do while in this distant area. See, I had planned on my mental list to get the order THEN eat, but when the order was switched…yep, that was the skip in my record.
On to the grocery store that carries more organic groceries, and then to the roadside market on the way home that has the type of sunflower seeds I was asked to get for someone. Check and check! Feeling good about accomplishing tasks and already six miles toward home, it suddenly dawns on me that I never picked up my order! I humorously remind my Little One of our original purpose for going where we had gone and we both just start laughing. And…back we go!
When we arrive to get my order, I see the building is dark and then the sign that says it closed at 2pm. It’s now 3:30pm. Ok, whatever. The lobby is open for people who do business in the lobby so I hoped maybe there would be a message for me in the message center that would direct me to a locker or something, like at some post office locations… but nope. Instead there’s a note saying that if they have to hold the package for very long, I will be charged a storage fee. Ugh. But whatever, it’s ok. We’ll just drive here again another time and hope I don’t get charged. We load up in the car and are pulling out when I remembered the card…and started laughing! My Little One started laughing, too, as she began to tease me a little. We parked, went back inside and mailed the birthday card! Finally check!
All in all, it was a fun day with my precious gift from God, who’s growing so much faster than seems real or fair! We got back in time to keep the play date I’d arranged for my Little One with the young next door neighbor at the fish pond to catch (with a net) fish, tadpoles and frogs, then release them back into the pond for another day and another time to catch and release.
We must never allow anger and frustration to get the best of us. How we handle it is how those watching will learn to handle it, especially our kids. When we allow God to guide our lives, there are always reasons for delays and changes that are beyond our control. Even though my perception was that it would’ve been the right place at the right time and I’d messed up, perhaps all the craziness kept us from being in what would’ve actually been the wrong place at the wrong time, thus sparing us from harm. Only God knows…and that’s ok.
Ha, ha! Cute! Yep, I can relate. I tell people that laughing at myself can make life fun, since there are so many opportunities. Ha, ha! 😆 God bless you!
👍 Thank you.
😊