Day Nine, Tuesday Night

Whew, what a day! Today there was a list, though a very ambitious one and it was a day on an emotional roller coaster. At one point I told my mother I was so angry I'd rather beat the OBC with a sledgehammer and set fire to it, rather than hand it over to Pick'N'Pull. Probably named so because you want to pull your hair out after picking them to deal with! But more on that later, first the list:

• Contact my friend to wish her a happy birthday
• Piano
• Sideboard
• DVDs
• OBC to PNP
• CSA 3:15-5
• Big kid pick up

Let me address these point by point. I did, in fact, wish my friend happy birthday via Facebook. Which is a wonderfully convenient way to send out all those sweet thoughts I have, the traditional post office way has not worked so well for me! I also happened to notice on Facebook that it was my niece's birthday. Which I have written on the calendar and have every year since she was born, so I don't know why it's always a surprise when it  creeps up on me! Nevertheless, I called and sent her lots of birthday love and I think she was pleased.

Piano. Yes, it finally happened. We had the piano moved to CC's house and it was an amazing event. Two guys showed up and danced the piano up and over the threshold, around the corner, down the stairs, across the pockmarked driveway and into their truck. They truly are artists. As they worked they constantly spoke and responded to each other. They knew exactly how much space they needed for each maneuver. They were courteous, respectful, professional and were even awed by TR's banjo bass. When I pay someone to do a job and they exceed my expectations, I always feel like it was money well spent. They even took the bin of piano rolls with them. We are very happy customers!!

Which leads into sideboard. I was so excited at the thought of having a place to put the sideboard until I get rid of it, I unpacked the whole thing, dragged it out into the middle of the living/dining area and then had to go to Costco, so I would be done in time to do my pick up. I did the Costco run, including gas, stopped into TJ's picked up the big kids, I even stopped to get the CSA box on my way to drop off my carpool child. And when I walked in the door I was raring to go ( after we all put away the supplies I had just brought home) and TR looked at me with disbelief. "You didn't really think we could move that downstairs ourselves did you" ( can you hear the soft chuckle as he says it?) "that thing is way to heavy for the two of us."

I thought back to the day we brought it home, ahhh, I do seem to remember three adult men and two adult women helping move it. Darn, darn and darn! I was all set to get it out today. I even measured the space to make sure it would fit. And now it sits stubbornly in the middle of the house, blocking everything, surrounded by masses of stuff I should have filtered out long ago. Darn. Okay so that's half done. Doesn't Mary Poppins have a saying about half done? Oh yes, "well begun is half done" so I'm at least Mary Poppins-ish with my sideboard project.

DVDs, no nothing got done on them at all. I am beginning to thing that  I will be buried in a coffin made of DVD boxes. I don't know why we can't get rid of them. We even bought a dedicated ha

rd drive to copy the movies onto so we could pass on the DVDs. But as with so many things in my life, that object sits gathering dust too. I should just put it downstairs with the DVDs so they can gather the same dust. Or at least be dusted at the same time. Seriously I hate the movie stack in from of the trunk where the media playing machines live. I guess it's about half as tall as it was, but if it were gone completely I would enjoy it so much more! So I will have to  put that on a list again (along with the sweater mending and other various tasks that have fallen by the wayside).

And now the most exciting (or at least blood pressure raising) part of the day. TR worked from home today, after we dropped off everyone we had to drop off, we headed home to await the Piano Men. AT about 9:00am I got the brilliant idea that since he was home we could, finally, drop the OBC to Pick'N'Pull and be done with it. We drove down there arriving around 9:30, and were told to report to the person behind the "No Smoking" door (never mind that there was a bigger sign on the door declaring it to be the auto buying department). We went in and there was an employee helping one woman at the desk, we waited about 5 minutes and another employee came in and instructed us to sign in and sit down. We did. About 15 minutes later she came out and informed the 500 year old man in the waiting area that his paperwork did not fax through and she'd call him when everything was copacetic. She than called us in. Now we had been approved weeks ago, having faxed in more paperwork than they probably really wanted to see. I had called and spoken with them on Saturday and we were in the system then, the employee knew my first name before I told him. So we get in there, it's probably 9:50 at this point, and she says she's sorry, she doesn't see an approval for us. I mention the whole calling in on Saturday thing and she gives me the blank DMV stare, as if to say 'so I say you're not in the system so you're not in the system!' She says she has to fax the paperwork in again and will let us know what happens. At 10:00 I;m feeling more than a little antsy, we have to be home by 11:00 to meet the Piano Men and time is ticking away and she's not reappearing, so I head into her little kingdom. I ask her how long the faxing will take and then how long the RE-approval process will be. She states that after they receive the fax it will take 15 minutes for the approval and 45 minutes to process receiving the car. Seriously?!? Then I remember that the fax isn't working properly and ask if she knows if they have received the fax. She doesn't know.  The long and short of it is that I left with my car and my paperwork, called the other provider the Bay Area Air Quality Management folks use and Pick'N'Pull will NOT be making ant profit from our OBC. That is when O told my mother I would rather bash the car to pieces and set fire to it in their parking lot before letting them make ANY money from it at all.

Okay, I'm all done with that! The last two items were taken care of as discussed and that last description was a doozy, I'm exhausted just thinking about it again. I am so glad to be feeling better, and I think that I am getting things done, even though my house isn't Sunset Magazine ready after a week and two days (and I have friends who could pull that off, including landscaping!), I am making progress. One of the things I am making the best progress with is this writing, because I have done it everyday, no matter how poorly I felt or tired I was, or especially if I thought I had nothing to write about. I am happy that the numbered days run consecutively, with NO gaps.

And (I do know I am not supposed to start sentences with and, but I like to do it, and it's my blog, no teacher grades here!) I was thinking about all the things in my life that make me happy and content even though I don't have a high-powered, high profile, high paying job, or live in a big fancy or even have a house cleaner (which I would love). I have some pretty fab circumstances which I would never trade away for any of those things I previously mentioned. One of my absolute favorite is being woken up with kisses every morning. There was a time when I had made such bad relationship choices that I had resigned to being on my own forever. For some reason all the men (read boys, I now understand they were VERY immature) I dated didn't actually want to be loved, by me. But my husband does and tells me all the time, just the way I always wanted, and even better than that, he doesn't turn my love and affection away. So if winning the lottery means giving that up, I say no thanks, I'm happy with what I got!

And on that note, Goodnight.

Pratt Museum Rose with Bumbly Bee