Saturday, December 10, 2011

Keeping Calm

 
 I don't know about you guys, by November I started to feel the crunch of the impending holidays coming. This insidious feeling of anxiety encroached when I began to see notices for upcoming events, performances, meetings, practices, parties, fundraisers, bell-ringing solicitors... Thankfully, this came on the heels of my first iphone-giving me a way to really organize and prioritize my thoughts and commitments. I decided it was O.K. to opt out of whatever I didn't feel like taking on and do what I could.

The picture above was taken at Macy's. The kids and I were so excited to see the first inkling of Christmas burgeoning. It was the calm before my personal storm. As we were exiting the mall I realized I lost my parking ticket. I know exactly what happened. When I took out my precious iphone to take the photo, it fell out of my back pocket and was lost in fairy land. Ya'll know I HATE to waste money! The thought of paying $20 to exit the mall was more than my frugal heart could bear. I (may) have done what any practical (not really) person would do- I gunned it! Yes, I tried to escape the clutches of the parking arm only to slam on my brakes as it let me know it wasn't happening. I (may have) left this detail out of my original telling of the story to my husband and cop dad.

 Lesson learned! My car is worth more than $20 and I (may have) scared the mess out of my children and surrounding pedestrians. Where am I going with this? Calm the bleep down is what I learned! Just and hour earlier I was surging with Christmas-induced oxytocin watching my children enjoy the first signs of this season's beauty.

Fall 2011 began the countdown to the last year of my twenties. I must say that I am clearly still maturing and constantly being humbled. I have always struggled with life's unfairness and keeping an eternal perspective. I may have failed this test; hopefully I'll get it next time. ( I may have three free parking passes to the same mall, after I may have called and complained about their nonsense lost ticket policy) Allegedly.