You might think that title is a metaphor. Like I’ve worked so hard this week that I’ve hit the wall, and reached my breaking point. While that might be correct on some level, the truth of the matter is I actually hit a wall.
This is what happens you are multi-tasking on your cell phone and you cut the corner too close in the parking ramp at work. Needless to say the hubs was ticked, and I was ticked. I’m still mortified and I keep running the scenario over and over in my head. This is the LAST thing we needed amidst the financial chaos of buying a new house and trying to decide whether to keep our current one as a rental property.
However, upon further inspection of my week, I realized that sometimes I don’t take the subtle hints fate tries to give me about SLOWING down, and just “being” in the moment. I think this is a HUGE hint that the phone is officially off-limits in the car. It has become a crazy addiction, I pick it up at stoplights, I glance at when it makes the slightest sound. It’s nuts, because I’m really NOT that important and I really don’t get that many emails, texts or tweets. There’s no reason to be so connected.
“Hitting the wall” was fate’s benign way of saying “knock it off”, because it could have been so much worse. I could have hit a person or another car; the kiddos could have been with me and gotten hurt or the car could have been totaled. Yes, I need to look at the brighter side of the whole thing and comprehend this as a teachable moment.
Have I learned my lesson?
Well, it’s been hard, but luckily E likes to play Angry Birds on my phone so when we are on the road I just give it to him. Last night he forgot to give it back, and we spent the whole night downtown without my nose in my phone. While I missed taking photos of my munchkins eating ice cream and running like crazy people through the playground, I felt like a big weight had been lifted. I didn’t need to “check-in” or document every little thing. It was freeing and maybe next time I’ll forget my phone on purpose and just bring the big camera instead, so those moments will be captured, but I’ll still be connected to THEM too.
As we ran around in the spring sunshine last night without cell phones, I was able to hear some pretty sweet Sound Bytes.
3. “Car broken mama, broken. Ouchie. Bandaid?”
Even little G felt bad about mama’s fender bender.
2. “Could you please watch out my little brother is behind you?”
I love how E looks out for his little brother. As an only child, I never had that and it’s nice to know my boys will always have someone to rely on.
1. “Creature report. Creature report…”
The boys’ Aunt bought G an Octonaut and he’s officially in love, which means we must watch it constantly. While I love kid shows the theme songs make my ears bleed. I posed the question over on my Facebook page, head over and share your dreaded kid show theme song.
I’m off to start the morning, and soak up this lovely weekend. Rumor has it that it will be 70 degrees…here’s hoping.
Have a great weekend and don’t hit the wall, if you know what I mean.
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Oh no!! That really blows. When I was in Santa Barbara, I used to have this habit of tossing my purse/backpack in the backseat (because it was bulky, so it was easier getting it in and out from the back than from across the front). The added benefit of that was, since it was in the back, I literally could NOT check my phone every time it went off without stopping the car and getting out. But the truth is when do we ever get anything that couldn’t wait 10 minutes until we got to our destination? Of course, these days I’m so UNattached to my phone, I forget to bring it half the time and that presents its own problems.
Anyway, I hope the damage doesn’t cost too much to fix and that things get better next week!
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Ugh…so we got an estimate and it was $3000. {Weeping into my wine right now} However, that’s what insurance is for. Although, the hubs has a bright idea of buying a new car door and having our friend’s dad put it on. That could be a blog post all in itself. … Stay tuned.
Yikes!!! That really sucks. Sorry to hear that! I hope your hub’s idea works, or that insurance is able to cover most of the cost.
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