Have you ever felt like you’ve had a Murphy’s Law moment, “If Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong?” I’m not a pessimistic person at all and I do not focus on things going wrong, but sometimes, “stuff” happens and it seems like if one thing goes wrong, it just leads to another…a domino effect.
Just last week…let’s say I had a Murphy’s moment…”everything that can go wrong, went wrong. “This could also be titled A Day in the Life of a Harried Mom.” (I’ll save that for some other posts for Chicago Moms Blog that I’ll be writing for).
I was awakened by my handsome husband who’s all dressed and was leaving early for a busy day of meetings. Fighting my husband’s wake-up call, I stayed under my warm cozy covers and I heard this still small voice, “keys,” but another voice got my attention instead, “just hit the snooze-five more minutes.” And that’s exactly what I did! Hit the snooze.
Five minutes was up way too fast…if you can relate! It’s time to push myself out of bed and get moving and start our normal morning routine: breakfast, motivating the kids to hurry along so they aren’t late and then it was time to wave to the kids good bye. My daughter is driving to school now and it’s the second day she’s driven her siblings. It’s an exciting time for her and for me!
All of a sudden I remembered that “still small voice” earlier, “keys”. Immediately, my eyes turned to the wall where we have a hook that holds all of our keys. Oh-Oh, Why aren’t my keys hanging on this hook? This was a very important day! Chicagonista Live debuting and I cannot call my co-hosts and tell them that I won’t make it. Oh-No!
After searching the kitchen counter, under piles of unopened mail, emptied my purse, and checked the ignition…still no car keys. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps my husband had my keys and that was what that still small voice trying to tell me and I should have tuned in.
After many attempts to call my husband knowing he may not answer due to his meeting, I decided to leave a message. I sit, I wait, I contemplate what do I do. My husband finally returned my call… I was so grateful, but I was not very happy when I found out that my “keys” were sitting his coat pocket downtown Chicago, where I needed to be in a few hours! OH-My-Gosh!
I tried to politely say bye to my husband, but deep down I wanted to scream at him out of frustration. We switched cars the day before and he forgot to put it my keys back on the hook where they belonged. So it was an accident. It’s not easy under these circumstance to stay calm but I decided that I would just take deep breaths and figure out a plan B.
So, what do I do? I have to be in the city at 11 am for a lunch appointment and then 1:30 for our first episode of Chicagonista Live. I could take a train…but then how would I get there? I even jokingly changed my status on Facebook asking if any of my friends were heading into the city and I actually did get a response from a friend of ours.
I decided that I would have to pull my daughter out of school and take her little jeep. This is her second day driving to school and I felt horrible, but what other choice did I have? After my emergency plea to the school secretary to dismiss her with my permission, my daughter picked me up and I dropped her off back at school, rushed home and still had to get ready.
Oh, that lunch appointment at 11:00…had to be canceled. I was sitting in my driveway when I realized that I didn’t know where I was going. I’d only been to Big Teeth studio once and you don’t want to get lost in Chicago-it’s a pretty big city!
The address was programmed into my navigation system but unfortunately, it’s in the car that I don’t have the key to turn on! Sitting in the driveway, the clock is ticking…I finally found the address scrolling through the calendar on my Blackberry phone. I decided that I would just download the Sprint navigation system and I’ll be on my way.
Not quite! After several attempt the Sprint GPS on my phone is not downloading. Thirty minutes later, I’m still not able to download the GPS. Great, the clock is really ticking and I need to be at the studio in one hour! I was determined and wasn’t ready to give up.
Unfortunately, I’m running out of time… no GPS and I am now going to go to my phone’s internet service to pull up the good old MapQuest. I can’t remember the last time I used MapQuest. It’s so yesterday and sometimes, it takes you off route and it did too! Just another thing that went wrong.
Looking at my watch, Chicagonista Live is launching in an hour and half and I finally have Plan B-my daughter’s cute little jeep, (which I was so thankful for). I’m just leaving the suburbs, my hair didn’t get a washed (it was hair day), my luncheon got canceled…but I’m at last on my way!
Wheew… I’m breathing a sigh of relief, praying for safety, laughing off the incident… until I see a sign for the toll booth! OMG.. I might have to fly through the I-PASS lane. My I-Pass is in my car that I didn’t have the keys for and my daughter doesn’t have an I-Pass i n hers…guess what? I don’t have any CASH either!!
I’m fast approaching the toll booth, I look down and in between the seat was a dollar just enough for the to eighty cent toll. I could have just zoomed through the I-PASS and call later to pay, but the problem is…I’ve done that before and I never remember to call.
After MapQuest took me 10 miles out of my way…but I finally made it to our first Chicagonista Live episode! I had plenty of time to “de-frazzle” by the time the show started and we had a fabulous time! You can check out our first episode on demand!
I’m sure you’ve experienced similar situations…this was actually pretty comical, after the fact. Needless to say, that morning was what I called a “Murphy’s Moment, if everything could go wrong, it went wrong!”
And…The moral of the story?
- Listen to the still small voice (the voice of God)
- Get a spare set of keys
- Always have cash in the car
Disclosure: I have no connection to the brands or products that are mentioned above.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh yeah, had more than one of those moments (days). Make for the BEST stories later, though. People seem to be always saying to me…”this could only happen to you, Cindy”. It’s just nice to see it’s not only me.
Glad everything worked out. Keeps us on our toes, these challenging days.
I’m glad everything turned out ok sounds like you had an adventure that day. reminds me of one time i was petsitting well the night before i had locked myself out of the clients home so i had gotten the spare key. well the next morning at 5 am the dogs rush me out the door in my pjs and what do i do i lock both sets of keys in the house and i was stuck with two cocker spaniels outside for an hour till the spare key arrived