Well that didn't go as planned

Not that Monday usually does, but I admit I did expect a bit more out of it than I got.

Let's review.

1. I expected a check
What I got: a check, but for 1/3 the expected amount. I was pissed, not so much for the missing money because this company WILL pay me, but because they'd told me it was coming on this paycycle, it didn't, and I'd wasted hours last night planning for a different set of financial circumstances. I spent another hour this morning reprioritizing and then paid the bills that will get paid this week. The rest will wait two weeks now.

2. I expected Max's piano lesson.
That actually happened. Because of the check fiasco, though, I only got about an hour of school work out of Max before the lesson.

3. I expected to make BLT's for lunch.
I discovered that the lettuce and most of the tomatoes had gone to the dark side. Dang. So I bunted and we had grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches. Milo complained that it wasn't peanutbutter. I complained that it wasn't filet minon (filet minion?) but ate it anyway. So did Milo.

4. I expected it to be winter, still, today.
Instead it was freakishly warm. So warm that I had to concede that only an idiot would pass up the chance to go out in the yard and clean up two months of dog poop I'd been ignoring (on account of the COLD) and finally chop the enormous tree branch in the yard into pieces so that the dogs could have more yard to poop in. No, really, it had to be done and if it has to be done then doing it in beautiful weather is way better than doing it in freezing weather. Plus, my neighbor was out looking for things to do and the next thing I knew he had his chain saw out and was reducing that branch to rubble. I stuck the logs under the deck in case we ever lose electricity for an extended period of time and need to burn actual wood. I put the branches out in the brush pile on the other side of my property line (beats me, but apparently it's a long-standing arrangement with whatever entity owns the forest on the other side of the property line). This led to a nice long bs session with aforementioned neighbor in which I learned exactly what the Amish charge to reroof a house like mine.

It was THOUSANDS less than I thought it would be.

I *also* learned exactly why my roof sags in this one spot, what was done to de-sag it in the past, and what the chances are that big oak to the left of my deck will fall on the house any time soon are (better than you might think, but now that I know what the cost of a new roof will be, I no longer WANT the tree on my house as I now know that if the roof sprung a leak tomorrow, I could probably swing it without help from the insurance company).

5. I expected Max to go skiing and have a great time.
I don't even want to go into what actually happened. Suffice to say that I forgot that my firstborn can be very cautious and if rushed into a new physical activity will panic. At some point along the way, the was-a-teenager-just-yesterday ski instructor gave the kids a CHOICE of whether or not they wanted to go down the bunny slope and then said something along the lines of, "if you don't want to, you can go inside" instead of, "if you're worried, let me know, and I'll go down with you." Everyone but Max went down the bunny slope. Max came in, bought dinner, and sat and waited for me for over an hour.

sigh.

He was frustrated and discouraged and disappointed in himself. I'll give him this. He didn't say he didn't want to go back. He didn't blame his evening on anyone else. He said, "I'm the only one who didn't get the hang of the snow plow right away, so I didn't get to go down the slope."

I had him give me a blow-by-blow of the day and that's when I understood that he'd been able to go down the slope, but given no real encouragement to. He was afraid, so he passed.

So, I'm not sure what I was supposed to do here, but my gut said that this boy is too old for the, "do you want me to go down with you?" thing. That's, you know, bringing your Mom into it to fix it for you. So I explained matter-of-factly that the course was too expensive to be spent in the way that he spent it that day. It made no sense to use the time that way. I also pointed out that the REASON the instructor wanted them to go down the hill is because if you don't get the snow plow at the top of the hill, I guarentee you that you'll have it by the time you get to the bottom. Something about picking up speed helps you find the right technique. Quickly.

So, I said, I'd be coming next week to go with him to make sure that he got the snow plow so he could do the bunny slope. Just once. That's all it will take. (There are plenty of parents doing this by the way -- it's at a steeply reduced rate, so there were easily as many parents and big brothers and sisters as there were 4th and 5th graders there.)

He made a relieved noise.

Then, I pointed out that part of the reason we were doing this was so he could meet some more kids from the area. And unless he was out on the slopes, there was no way he could run into anyone new.

Get it?

He got it. He started laughing.

I offered a few scenarios for conversation. It could go like this:

Max: Hi! Sorry about that gash on your cheek! I'm not so good at the snowplow yet. I'm really glad you were there to break my fall! I'm Max! Want to come over and play some time?

Max: Ooooh, that's gonna bruise! Hey, are you into bionicles?

Max: Hey, are you okay? I'll get you a medic! But maybe tomorrow we could get together when you're done with school!

We headed home and I tried to table my disappointment. I must have achieved something in there though because an hour later Max said, "Oh, hey! Where's the calendar?" as he walked towards the calendar. He picked up a pen and said, "next week . . . skiing is on Wednesday" and he drew an arrow from Monday skiing to place it on Wednesday.

Yes. Someone in a learning situation stood in front of a large group in which Max was present and gave a bunch of directions. And Max heard them and followed them. And in the directions they mentioned that the kids needed to go home and tell their parents that since there was no school on Monday, skiing would be on Wednesday instead.

And Max heard. And then . . . he remembered. Before Monday. And THEN he communicated it to an ADULT.

I'm pretty sure this is a first. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah.

6. I expected to get some work done.
I didn't. Not one lick.
Okay, well, that's not entirely true. I cooked, I cleaned, I paid bills, I went to piano lessons and did ski patrol, and I baked 12 loaves of bread. My desk will be clean before I crawl in bed tonight and I'll have a prioritized daily task list for tomorrow (not really, but I'll have a to-do list).

But I didn't get to the Y to get on the treadmill and I feel fatter for it.

And I didn't get as much paying work done as I wanted.

And my domain name expired and I don't think I'm going to renew it because I didn't budget for that.

I downloaded the entire William Tell Overture today. I thought I might need it.