Bad Blogging Day. What Can You Do?
Yesterday was one of "those days". You know Murphy's Law? Well, Murphy should have his own day of the week. And yesterday was definitely Murphysday.
Sorry to say there is probably no value in this post. Maybe a laugh. Its just a peek at how crazy life can get sometimes, and how it can affect your work from home plans:
Sorry to say there is probably no value in this post. Maybe a laugh. Its just a peek at how crazy life can get sometimes, and how it can affect your work from home plans:
My Plan
Here is how cute my Friday looked in my planner:
I knew I had to go to the bank to take care of a problem with my online account.
I knew we would stop by the store and get some dry erase pens for the girls.
I knew that my mother and sister planned to take the girls on an outing the next evening, so I planned to have their day bag all packed and ready.
I knew I was supposed to meet a woman who wanted a baby item I was giving away.
I knew that my last blog post would be kinda popular.
I knew I would get tons of stuff done last night because I was FULL of ideas.
The Bank
I logged in at the last of August to check that all my transactions made it to the bank. The account didn't look right. It was showing I was $2 in the negative.
That was weird, considering my card had been expired for three weeks because they sent the new one to my parent's house.
I transferred my PayPal money which was waaaaaaaaay more than enough to cover the problem.
The next morning the account was locked. I had a notice that said I needed to log in and pay a fee.
I went to my emails to see if they had sent me some sort of warning. All I saw, (oh sweet irony) was an email reminding me that I would have to renew my website in one week.
I couldn't log in. I couldn't get through to customer service. So I went to the bank. And they told me I should have logged in and paid the fee online (their preference). When I said that they had locked the account, they said that yes, they always do that when you go in the negative. Which makes no sense if they want you to log in to pay, huh?
We argued a bit about why the account was negative to start with, and why several hundred dollars didn't cover the $13 I owed. They said they would look into that, but I would have to open a new checking account.
I was still pretty hot about the fact that they locked the online account immediately so that I couldn't fix the problem, but since it was already close to closing time on a Friday, I opened the new account, rather than waiting til Monday to find another bank.
Okay. So. Checking account back in action. Time to laugh and get the rest of the day done right, right?
Walmart
Normally, my kids love to shop. They've never cried at the store. Not even as babies.
I was actually shocked today when they had an epic meltdown at the checkout because they couldn't reach stuff to put it on the belt. I was pretty flabbergasted when they didn't stop even after I solved the "problem".
That was after not being able to find anything because they rearranged the whole store. It took two hours to do 30 minutes of shopping.
Home Sweet Home
The kids stayed fussy all the way home, and fought over who got to carry in which bag, and who got to unpack the olives, and just about anything they could think up.
Because we have a new routine for school, the house has gotten a bit messy. My husband I set to work cleaning up, which should have been a pretty quick job with the two of us working together.
I started with the dishes. Only to see that the wash cycle had been interrupted. In our sultry Oklahoma heat, that meant that the plastic inside had already started mildewing. I had to bleach the dishwasher and wash all the dishes in the sink while it was running a rinse cycle.
After that, I learned that a diaper had gotten washed in the laundry. So instead of tossing a load in to wash quickly while we ate dinner, I spent an hour picking diaper jelly out of the machine and all the clothes.
I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to turn on the vacuum. Within three seconds, the hose had clogged. Right in the middle too. So another hour trying to squeeze out a clog caused by a Barbie shoe and a bobby pin.
Then we saw that the cat had pooped in the bathtub. Angry, I guess, that we had been gone so long.
My husband took charge of poop removal, and I took care of bleaching. We saw that the trash truck decided not to run today, so the can was still full.
Instead of a quick clean up and relaxation, I sanitized a poopy tub, handled diaper goo, tackled mildew, touched a grotesque blob from the vacuum, and squashed garbage into a hot, stinky, overfull can.
Between us, we did manage a clean kitchen, most of the laundry, new bed linens, dinner, and swept floors.
Who Doesn't Like Free??
I've been trying to sell some stuff on my local Facebook yard sale site. At the moment, this stuff is piled in my bedroom, in the way.
I also set out stuff to give away for free. I've spent all week playing hide and seek with people wanting stuff, then not showing up to get it.
That really throws off our plans for what we can do, because inevitably, if we do something else, they will message and say they changed their minds and want to meet.
By far, this was the strangest. A woman asked us to bring a free item by where she works. And I checked in with her twice before we went. She works just over the hill from where we live.
Once we got there, (a few minutes early) we were told she left earlier in a hurry, and she never messaged or answered me again to say she did or didn't want it. I mean, it was free and I was delivering it to you! Just tell me, ya know, so I can pass it to someone else?
That was the fifth time this week that we got stood up, and I've just about lost all patience with trying to fit my days around other people's whims!
Work Online They said, It will be Fun, They Said
Once the girlies were in bed, it was time to tackle the online world. Instead of the work I had planned to do, I would be spending the night changing all of my payment information because of my new bank account number.
Or...I would have.
The first thing that happened was MTurk. I've used the site for years, and now suddenly they say they can't verify my street address. I can't do any work or change any information on there because my "account is in poor standing".
I'm not sure how much communication goes on between MTurk and the main Amazon site, but as much stuff as I've ordered from Amazon and had delivered to this address? I should have a gold star by my name or something.
And right about the time I was really thinking I would get all of that done and still have time to write a post, or comment, or something productive...
The storm hit and the internet went out like a light.
Then the lights went out like the internet.
The twins woke up screaming like banshees.
The full garbage can was blown over onto the road...where of course, it was blown by the wind and hit by cars before the lightning storm eased up and we go outside.
But I Can Just Do It All Tomorrow...
I told myself that it was okay. I could just catch up on everything Saturday while the girls were out.
And then my sister posted that she would most likely not be going because my nephew was sick, and the weather was touchy.
That means that the day will either be called on account of rain, or I will be going as the substitute second grown-up for the outing.
Not that I feel very adult this week! I can't even keep my trash in the trash can!
Here is how cute my Friday looked in my planner:
- Schoolwork
- Go to the bank
- Stop by store
- Catch up housecleaning
- Write out some topic ideas and outlines while making dinner.
- Dinner
- Drawing time with girls
- Work online
I knew I had to go to the bank to take care of a problem with my online account.
I knew we would stop by the store and get some dry erase pens for the girls.
I knew that my mother and sister planned to take the girls on an outing the next evening, so I planned to have their day bag all packed and ready.
I knew I was supposed to meet a woman who wanted a baby item I was giving away.
I knew that my last blog post would be kinda popular.
I knew I would get tons of stuff done last night because I was FULL of ideas.
The Bank
I logged in at the last of August to check that all my transactions made it to the bank. The account didn't look right. It was showing I was $2 in the negative.
That was weird, considering my card had been expired for three weeks because they sent the new one to my parent's house.
I transferred my PayPal money which was waaaaaaaaay more than enough to cover the problem.
The next morning the account was locked. I had a notice that said I needed to log in and pay a fee.
I went to my emails to see if they had sent me some sort of warning. All I saw, (oh sweet irony) was an email reminding me that I would have to renew my website in one week.
I couldn't log in. I couldn't get through to customer service. So I went to the bank. And they told me I should have logged in and paid the fee online (their preference). When I said that they had locked the account, they said that yes, they always do that when you go in the negative. Which makes no sense if they want you to log in to pay, huh?
We argued a bit about why the account was negative to start with, and why several hundred dollars didn't cover the $13 I owed. They said they would look into that, but I would have to open a new checking account.
I was still pretty hot about the fact that they locked the online account immediately so that I couldn't fix the problem, but since it was already close to closing time on a Friday, I opened the new account, rather than waiting til Monday to find another bank.
Okay. So. Checking account back in action. Time to laugh and get the rest of the day done right, right?
Walmart
Normally, my kids love to shop. They've never cried at the store. Not even as babies.
I was actually shocked today when they had an epic meltdown at the checkout because they couldn't reach stuff to put it on the belt. I was pretty flabbergasted when they didn't stop even after I solved the "problem".
That was after not being able to find anything because they rearranged the whole store. It took two hours to do 30 minutes of shopping.
Home Sweet Home
The kids stayed fussy all the way home, and fought over who got to carry in which bag, and who got to unpack the olives, and just about anything they could think up.
Because we have a new routine for school, the house has gotten a bit messy. My husband I set to work cleaning up, which should have been a pretty quick job with the two of us working together.
I started with the dishes. Only to see that the wash cycle had been interrupted. In our sultry Oklahoma heat, that meant that the plastic inside had already started mildewing. I had to bleach the dishwasher and wash all the dishes in the sink while it was running a rinse cycle.
After that, I learned that a diaper had gotten washed in the laundry. So instead of tossing a load in to wash quickly while we ate dinner, I spent an hour picking diaper jelly out of the machine and all the clothes.
I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to turn on the vacuum. Within three seconds, the hose had clogged. Right in the middle too. So another hour trying to squeeze out a clog caused by a Barbie shoe and a bobby pin.
Then we saw that the cat had pooped in the bathtub. Angry, I guess, that we had been gone so long.
My husband took charge of poop removal, and I took care of bleaching. We saw that the trash truck decided not to run today, so the can was still full.
Instead of a quick clean up and relaxation, I sanitized a poopy tub, handled diaper goo, tackled mildew, touched a grotesque blob from the vacuum, and squashed garbage into a hot, stinky, overfull can.
Between us, we did manage a clean kitchen, most of the laundry, new bed linens, dinner, and swept floors.
Who Doesn't Like Free??
I've been trying to sell some stuff on my local Facebook yard sale site. At the moment, this stuff is piled in my bedroom, in the way.
I also set out stuff to give away for free. I've spent all week playing hide and seek with people wanting stuff, then not showing up to get it.
That really throws off our plans for what we can do, because inevitably, if we do something else, they will message and say they changed their minds and want to meet.
By far, this was the strangest. A woman asked us to bring a free item by where she works. And I checked in with her twice before we went. She works just over the hill from where we live.
Once we got there, (a few minutes early) we were told she left earlier in a hurry, and she never messaged or answered me again to say she did or didn't want it. I mean, it was free and I was delivering it to you! Just tell me, ya know, so I can pass it to someone else?
That was the fifth time this week that we got stood up, and I've just about lost all patience with trying to fit my days around other people's whims!
Work Online They said, It will be Fun, They Said
Once the girlies were in bed, it was time to tackle the online world. Instead of the work I had planned to do, I would be spending the night changing all of my payment information because of my new bank account number.
Or...I would have.
The first thing that happened was MTurk. I've used the site for years, and now suddenly they say they can't verify my street address. I can't do any work or change any information on there because my "account is in poor standing".
I'm not sure how much communication goes on between MTurk and the main Amazon site, but as much stuff as I've ordered from Amazon and had delivered to this address? I should have a gold star by my name or something.
And right about the time I was really thinking I would get all of that done and still have time to write a post, or comment, or something productive...
The storm hit and the internet went out like a light.
Then the lights went out like the internet.
The twins woke up screaming like banshees.
The full garbage can was blown over onto the road...where of course, it was blown by the wind and hit by cars before the lightning storm eased up and we go outside.
But I Can Just Do It All Tomorrow...
I told myself that it was okay. I could just catch up on everything Saturday while the girls were out.
And then my sister posted that she would most likely not be going because my nephew was sick, and the weather was touchy.
That means that the day will either be called on account of rain, or I will be going as the substitute second grown-up for the outing.
Not that I feel very adult this week! I can't even keep my trash in the trash can!
So Much For Planners
Working at home is fun, no doubt. I would never want it any other way. But there are days when I realize that working away from home has a few perks too.
For one thing, you've got about 8 hours where the outside world is just not your problem. Then again...I would have probably never managed to get my bank account fixed because they close early. So there is that!
Lesson learned: Planning is good. But never expect to always live by the planner. Stuff happens. Be flexible.
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