Usually coming back to work after a long leisurely weekend out of town is nothing short of painful. Especially when you get back into town late and have to wake up early the next day for work. However.. my faux Monday, as I would like to reference this day as, started off particularly terribly.
I woke up around 7:45, I mean, my alarm went off at 7:45. I was out of bed by 8:07. Having to be at work by 8:45 with a 15 minute drive ahead of me, I was a bit pressed for time. I dressed quickly and threw things together in a very zombie-like state. In a moment of quick thinking I grabbed a slim fast can out of the refrigerator thinking that it could serve as a quickly packed lunch. Soon i was out the door, starting the car, ready to go. That nagging feeling of forgetting something was still in the back of my mind, but I pushed it aside, eager not to be late for work and to avoid being held at that SAME annoying stoplight for five minutes.
By some miracle I managed not to be late to work. I greeted everyone with a groggy hello and proceeded to my locker to empty my belongings. As I reached in my purse to get my Chapstick I encountered a sticky wet substance that quickly drenched my hand. As I pulled my hand out of my purse I could see that my hand, as well as the tip of my white sweater was drenched in chocolate. I suddenly realized that I had thrown an open half-full can of chocolate slim fast into my BRAND NEW dooney and burke handbag. Immediately I began ripping all of my necessities out of my purse, doing a mental checklist as I scrambled for the most important things. Cell Phone? Planner? Wallet? All drenched. I scrambled to dry the sticky substance off each of my precious items...but it was to no avail. I dried off everything as best I could, while also trying to get my station ready for work.
I thought my cell phone was fine, the shake seemed quite viscous and I thought it had played to my advantage by failing to seep into each pore of my cell phone. However, a few minutes later I looked down to find that my phone was calling my mom. I quickly ended the call, but only a few minutes later I noticed it was doing it again. I decided to turn the phone off and take out the battery and sim card to let them refresh.. or whatever it is electronics do. After a few minutes I put the pieces back together, praying that they would work. To my horror the only thing my phone could produce was a bright green screen. My co-worker described it as "The equivalent of the BSOD in the computer world." Apparently BSOD is an acronym for blue screen of death. As you can imagine, I was quite mournful.
The rest of the day was no better than the start. I was a bit down about the morning mishap, and quite preoccupied with the recent death of my phone. Everywhere I turned, I seemed to encounter more problems; I was charged a fee on my bank account that was incorrect, my time sheet wasn't right, I knocked over a bunch of coins, my day was not going so great. My co-worker described my day as "a test of patience." It's funny how that works sometimes. While I was praying for my day on the way to work this morning my chocolate flavored bomb was going off in my purse...still, I kept thinking how God can take a terrible situation and turn it for the better. I tried not to lose sight of that.
After work I headed over to the AT&T store. Of course it is never fun going through all the red tape and high costs of getting a new phone, but at the end of the hour I had a new iphone in my possession. I had been putting off buying one for a long time, but was very glad that something had finally pushed me over the edge. Also, nothing irreplaceable was damaged in the chocolatey explosion..my purse is good as new, and although I will have to get a new planner eventually.. maybe the chocolate flavored stuck-together pages will offer me a reminder of having a little faith and patience. At the end of the day, I guess the old adage is true...all's well that ends well!
