Diary of a SubUrban Housewife

Huge Sigh of Relief

I took yesterday as a vacation day because it was Zoe's birthday.

I took today as a sick day because....well.....my husband did.

I remembered I had a repair person coming into the office at 10, so when I called in I asked my assistant to take care of that for me. What I completely forgot was that I was having the painters come this weekend.

I got a frantic call at 5:30 from the receptionist saying the painters were there and what should she do????? Well, I didn't get her message until close to 6 and the painters had left by then and said they'd reschedule.

But then I started to get a nagging feeling.

You see, every year in March my building has their annual "power down". It is when they turn off all the power to the building for about eight hours and do various and sundry tests and repairs.

I got a very sick feeling in my stomach that the power down was this weekend.

Now I would never be so clueless to schedule painters for the same weekend as the power down, but still, that nagging feeling persisted.

I spent the better part of an hour figuring out how I was going to manage getting to the office and taking care of all that needed to be done, and contacting all the people I needed to contact to take care of their things, and dreading the chewing out I was gonna get from my boss for not having my act together on this.

This thing that happens every year and is a big deal because we have to do a lot of preparations in the office prior to the building killing all the power. Not the least of the odious chores is emptying and defrosting all the mini-fridges all over the office (there are at least eight of them, and 6 full-sized refrigerator/freezers, which are thankfully frost-free).

And because that wasn't enough, Zoe's best friend is spending the weekend and I booked pedicures for both of them at 11:30 tomorrow morning, and then one of Zoe's other dearest friends is coming over at 2:30 and Chuck and I are taking them all to see Agent Cody Banks 2 and to dinner at Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Zoe's birthday.

So now I was going to have to juggle everyone else's schedule, spend the better part of Saturday in the office, and endure a chewing out from my boss, my daughter, and my husband, because I fucked things up royally.

And for what?

To exchange the black evening Manolo's for the carmel kitten-heel slingback Manolo's I've been dreaming about.

Yeah, I fucked this all up over a pair of shoes.

OK, the most perfect shoes that ever saw the face of this planet, but for shoes.

Yeah, so I'm working myself up into a fine tizzy when it occurs to me to check my work calendar. I know I would put the power-down dates in my calendar.

And I did.

It's next weekend.

That gush of wind outside your window: that's me heaving a huge sigh of relief.

Posted by beth at March 13, 2004 12:18 AM