Thank you all for your kind and supportive comments regarding my son’s dental surgery. He is booked for the second surgery, and I was happily surprised to hear that it will take no more than twenty minutes under general anesthetic; I am still salty that we didn’t do this in the FIRST place, but the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, etcetera.
When I asked the nurse on the phone several spastic questions, she was very calming and made me feel like a) my son’s particular issues might be problematic in a regular dental office, but are par for the course in their specialist’s office, and b) I SHOULD HAVE INVESTIGATED THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE. But again. Planting trees, we don’t know what we don’t know, and I will probably never trust a regular dentist for advice again.
I am a person who generally likes Mondays. Monday is generally a good day for me: I have a morning to accomplish things and then an afternoon class with a lovely group of ladies, we have pasta on Monday nights, and I am well-rested from the weekend. This past Monday, though. I felt like Garfield, or these guys:
Honestly, it was a ridiculous day of frustration. The dental office and oral surgeon both kept phoning me, while I was walking Rex, to say they had emailed over various forms and paperwork that needed to be responded to, but I had received nothing. My personal email was working fine, but our family email – which I use for all such things – kept giving me error messages. Finally I contacted our internet provider, who informed me that there had been a password compromise, so they locked my account. I mean, good? But also, I would have liked to know that?
The fellow on my Help Chat had me log into my account on their website, which required a two-step verification process; the authentication code was sent to…my email that was not working. There was no way around this. EMAIL OR NOTHING. Eventually, after much wrangling we did get around it, and all was resolved, but it took a significant amount of time and as soon as I finished the mountains of paperwork I needed to leave to teach my class.
I was feeling fairly agitated by this time because MORE DENTAL SURGERY, plus all the email issues, plus filling in all the forms and finding all the cards with all the various health numbers on them, which needed to be done IMMEDIATELY. Because of my preparation for my flying birdies, my sons carry their health care cards on their persons, but luckily Past Nicole had anticipated issues and had photos of the health care cards on my phone, which I finally remembered. Finishing all this, I zipped over to the community centre, thinking how nice it was that the heat was finally fixed, and that it was a beautiful warm day; I expected the centre to be fairly warm and was dressed accordingly in short sleeves and capri-length leggings.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I entered the room to discover it was freezing, and not just freezing, but Freezing With Blasts Of Freezing Air. The air-conditioning was on full blast, and when I asked the women in the office if we could possibly turn off the air-conditioning, they replied that they could not. It had been jammed on full blast since the previous Thursday, and no one could figure out how to turn it off. A service call, they said, had been requested.
I think if someone had told me all of the issues affecting my classes in the past two months, I would not have believed them. I would not have believed that a community centre could be shut down completely for six weeks to work on the HVAC system, I would not have believed that after those six weeks I and my fellow teachers would be required to teach for two weeks in a hall with no heat, I would not have believed that my unheated yoga classes would be punctuated with the sound of drilling into metal and that I would have to beg the workmen to please, PLEASE stop drilling for five minutes so my students could have a peaceful savasana. After all that, I certainly would not have believed that I would be faced with an air-conditioned room that no one could possibly bear being in. I just stood and stared forlornly at the thermostat for a long time, randomly pushing seemingly useless buttons, until the centre manager came up to me and said that, happily, the boardroom was empty that afternoon and the air conditioning didn’t seem to be on in that room, so if I could help her move chairs we could hold the class in there.
It was cozy and wonderful, and afterwards I felt much more calm and ready to tackle life, until I got home and chaos seemed to follow me. Every single task I needed to do took five times longer than usual because of small complications arising – from emails to event planning, from trying to activate a card online to making dinner, every little thing was way harder than it needed to be, for no reason that I could tell except that maybe I had angered the universe at some point and was being smited.
It’s a good thing I am not one of those people who think that Monday sets the tone for the week. I simply waved the white flag, ate some leftover Mother’s Day cake, and went to bed, thinking, like Scarlett O’Hara, that after all, tomorrow is another day.
Weekly Reading
The House On Mango Street. I really loved this little book of tiny vignettes about a Latina girl growing up in – and getting out of – Chicago. I loved that in the prologue, the author talked about wanting to write for people who are busy working for a living, who don’t have much time to read and are tired. Each story vignette is very short, and that’s why. It’s an absolute delight of a book.
My Body. After reading No Filter, my friend Cherie (HI CHERIE) recommended this to me as another book of memoir essays about a model and the modeling industry. I had no idea who the author of this memoir was. That has never stopped me before! If you also don’t know, she’s a famous swimsuit model and actor, who became famous after appearing in the video for Blurred Lines. Funnily enough, I was talking about this book to my husband, who DID know who she was, which was probably the most surprising thing I learned this month. I liked this collection about the life of a model and the bad men who take advantage of them, but I think what was most interesting were her essays about being an Instagram influencer. To the outside world, being an influencer might be perceived as an easy way to make money, but my goodness, it is NOT. It is a job, and not one that I would like, involving a lot of work and obsessing over screens, likes, and comments.
Thankfully, the rest of the week was much more smooth, productive, and happy than Monday portended, albeit smoky, and it included some gardening, long chats with friends, a birthday dinner for my mom, my thousandth – thousandth! – Peloton ride, and a freshly groomed and ready for summer Rex. This week is my son’s graduation ceremony, filled with all the fun and social things that go with it. I hope you all have a beautiful week! xo
Oh, I have had days like that! How is it possible for NOTHING to go smoothly for an entire day??? But- I’m glad you were able to shrug it off and go on with the week.
i have The House on Mango Street sitting in my living room right now, I just haven’t read it. You and Engie have both given it a great review, so I’m going to read it as soon as I’m done with my current book.
REX!!!!! I love freshly groomed and ready for summer Rex! Oh, and congratulations to your son! I hope you have a great week.
We read The House on Mango Street as a family one time when North was in middle school in lieu of our nightly poetry reading because I’d forgotten to get a poetry book from the library. The vignettes were the perfect length to do one a night and they are quite poetic.
Oh it’s just perfect for that! I loved it all.
NICOLE. My god, what a DAY. That you didn’t take to your bed in tears after the email fiasco alone is astonishing to me! I am so glad that it was just (“just”) the one day. YIKES.
And the whole dental surgery thing just makes me so mad for you. Experts should anticipate that their non-expert patients will not KNOW things, and should TELL THEM these things. ARGH. Hopefully it will be as swift as the dental surgery people promised.
And WHAT IS GOING ON at your community center?!?!
Deep breaths. Okay. Very glad that it is a fresh week and I am hoping that today is going MUCH better than last Monday.
IT WAS A DAY, SUZANNE. I just thought…what if the rest of the week is like this? Thankfully it was not but honestly!
The House on Mango Street is perfection of the English language, as far as I’m concerned. Just beautiful.
I’m so sorry for your Monday struggles, but you do seem to be in pretty good spirits after all that. I’m really impressed. I might have turned off my phone and pretended email didn’t exist, but you really went with it.
(Also, I am president of the board for a community center and the stupid HVAC and elevator systems are like 95% of our maintenance woes. We were just quoted about $10,000 (USD) to do something about the dripping of water from the AC that needs to be done before people start really using the AC. And that’s just a stop-gap. They really think we should be redoing the whole system. THE WHOLE SYSTEM. So, basically, I’m feeling terrible for the office people at the community center.)
The HVAC system has been trouble for years and years, but this year has been the absolute worst. They replaced the entire thing AND IT STILL ISN’T PROPERLY WORKING. I do feel for the women in the office, because it’s a lot to deal with.
You know I love The House on Mango Street so am pleased you’ve found it and enjoyed it. ‘Tis a gem of a book.
I’m irritated along with you about the AC. Being too cold isn’t conducive to anything productive, not to mention it’s just plain wasteful. What a situation.
I loved that book so much! It was just wonderful to read.
Uff, Nicole. This was a lot. I hate when there are multiple things to troubleshoot in the same day… I am so glad these days always end at some point and we can start with a fresh day and fresh attitude. <3
Yes! Every day is a chance for a fresh start!
“Everything is harder than it should be” is the tagline of modern life. All of these systems that were supposed to simplifying things just made them worse, right? I am thankful for modern medicine of course but if I have to do one more thing through a healthcare “portal” (into hell), that requires a different login and password I am going to scream.
Oh I 1000000% agree! Like, why can’t things just work? Why can’t things just go smoothly?
First off, Rex looks so handsome and so ready for summer, like my boys do!
Wow, that was a craptastic string of events last Monday. Oof. I’m glad things improved from there. I can’t believe that the community center was closed for so long for HVAC work – and now the HVAC is STILL causing problems! I’m cringing just thinking of that cold room as I loathe being cold. I am glad they could find another spot for your class!
Ooh, a book written for tired people. I feel like the target audience for that.
Happy Graduation week to your son – and to you and your husband! What a milestone week for you all!
Thanks Lisa! It’s a big exciting week for sure! This is the thing about having kids so close together – bang bang, we are done with school!
THE MULTI FACTOR ID LOOP– this is my most hated thing maybe in the universe becasue when I am using MF ID it’s usually for an admin task I don’t even want to be doing and then to be unable to do it– GAAAAAAH so frustrating!
I KNOWWWWWWW! I almost screamed when it said “authentication sent to *my email*”
Let’s hope that the next surgery and the HVAC problems will go the way of those trees – planted in the past!
Hmm, I’m almost caught up on podcasts so I might be looking for a new audio book soon. I know who Emily Ratajkosky is but did not know she had written a book – from what I know plus your review I’m interested in what she has to say!
It was interesting – I really love reading about women who have had a life very different from my own. And boy, is hers different! If you listen, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Particularly the Instagram chapters I found interesting.
Oh, what a frustrating week you had! But you write about it with such humor that I can’t help but smile. Congratulations on your 1000th Pelleton ride! That’s amazing!!
Thanks Michelle, it was pretty exciting to get the “millennium club” as they call it!
I had a day like this last week, but it didn’t happen on a Monday. I am sorry. 😘
But I really like your attitude toward Mondays. I try to have that attitude on Mondays…well, most days, but Mondays can be difficult for some of us here, so I instituted Chipotle Monday. It’s one of my favorite takeout places, and now we all have something to look forward to.
I LOVE that idea- Chipotle Monday. Just to give yourself a break.
Right?? 😊
I love that reframe! Something to look forward to every Monday!
It’s been a lot of fun!
Oof I hate days where everything just seems to be hell bent on making life difficult. I admit that I have a very low tolerance for things tech not working. I don’t want to know how my computer/email/systems work, I just need them to work and I don’t do well when they just
. . . stop working. Bleh.
Also, my workplace has been having HVAC issues for some time (it’s the federal government so this is not entirely unexpected or unusual, but still). Last week they turned off the HVAC over the weekend (as they do every weekend – why? who knows?) and Monday it got very hot (for here – 85 degrees). The upshot is that part of the HVAC system broke and it couldn’t cool, so it was over 85 degrees in my office. I went home because it just wasn’t possible to work in that. Then Tuesday they got the AC working and to compensate blasted it so high that I wore a wool cardigan all day. This week they seem to finally have got it figured out – or maybe it’s that it’s back in the mid 60s here so neither hot nor cold? We’ll find out when it gets hot again at the end of the week. WHEEEEEEEE
OH MY GOD MAGGIE. That is so frustrating and annoying. Just…can’t we have normal temperatures?
Oh, days like that are so aggravating. I”m so very glad that the board room was available. I think I would’ve cancelled class if it wasn’t. The dental surgery situation is mind blowing. I really fault that dentist for attempting something that should’ve been sent to the oral surgeon. Was he just looking to make a buck? If so, shame on him. Hooray for the rest of your week shaping into a normal, enjoyable week.
Honestly, Ernie, I think you’re right – I think it was a cash grab. So frustrating!
I’m so sorry for that frustrating Monday, Nicole. How absolutely awful to lurch from one irritating disaster to the next. I’m glad things are under control and hope your son’s surgery goes smoothly and he (and all of you) enjoy graduation celebrations!!!
Thanks so much, Maya!
Oh what a frustrating day!
The emailing the authentication code to the address that was locked is such a hilariously inept failure of the system.
I’m trying to think of Mondays more arbitrarily – like they aren’t *really* the beginning of the week so I should just accept that it will be as chaotic as the rest of the week. But coming of restful Sundays, sometimes a issue-packed Monday feels that much worse.
I read House on Mango Street years ago in high school, but I should pick it up again for a re-read!
Hilariously inept is EXACTLY the right description! I mean, it’s so stupid but also kind of funny.
Oh my goodness that day. I think I would have totally lost it. Especially with the code sent to the non-functional email!!! How ludicrous?? I’m happy they solved your yoga class issue and gave you a cozy room. What a day!
Oh Pat, it just felt like “can NOTHING go right today?” Argh!
What. A. Day. But you made it! And came out stronger on the other side! And I just want to hug your puppy 🙂
Thanks Daria! He’s pretty huggable!
Wow, Nicole, that was a comedy of errors for you on Monday! What a crazy day. I always appreciate your positive outlook, even in the midst of a very terrible day. I think I would have given up for the day, after the second crazy thing happened so kudos to powering through for as long as you could!
Summer Rex! What a cutie!
It was such a crazy day!
Ug, that story about the HVAC sounds like how our office is sometimes. We are in a high-rise and apparently they cannot climate control each room, so the result is either sweltering heat or shivering cold. It is fairly regular to see people walking around in their puffy jackets in the middle of a nice day. I always keep a shawl handy and I leave my jacket at work because I don’t need it outside but I do need it inside!
I am glad that the rest of your week did not follow the events on the Monday and that you have such a positive attitude about the entire thing! Also PS great quote from Office Space! Oh and Rex’s ear hairs are so short and cute!! He got the “high and tight” haircut!
So many great quotes from Office Space. Sometimes when I’m frustrated I think “PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?” and it always makes me laugh!
“Does anyone say you’ve got a case of the Mondays?”
“No. No man. Hell no. I do believe you’d get your ass kicked saying something like that.”
Ha! At work we have all kinds of Johns and I always think, “Bob, Bob.” I also call them “the Johns” as in, a meeting of the Johns.
Remember “These are the Daves I know, I know, these are the Daves I know?”
Kids in the Hall? I actually grew up with no TV, so I am not very well versed on most shows, but I see it’s available on YouTube now, so maybe I will go back and watch it now!
Oh my! So much frustration piled up on one day!
Your pup — is he as soft and snuggly as he looks in this photo? Sometimes when I’m feeling out of sorts, I rest my head on one of our cats…and, it helps to feel calmer and better. Thank goodness for their soft, warm, furry selves.
Also, The House on Mango Street! How do I not know about this book. Adding it to my to-read list immediately.
Hope your week is going smoothly.
Chrisoula, yes! He is as soft and snuggly as he looks. He loves being hugged and scritched and petted, and it’s the best therapy ever.
Ugh, such a frustrating day! I’m so glad you made it through and the rest of the week went by more smoothly. I hope your son’s oral surgery goes well.
Thank you so much, Astrid!
That was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good Day. I am impressed with your mothering skills. I think my kids were married by the time I finally made them take their birth certificates and social security cards.🤣
Hahaha I still have the birth certificates and SIN cards! The health ones are the only ones I’ve been able to do this with!
Rex! I hardly know you!
My Mondays are generally good too – morning in a library, afternoon to do groceries and see my parents when I pick up Lucy, home early. This week we got home on Tuesday and then I started the fuckton of laundry, and then Matt MIXED UP the dirty and clean laundry and all was ashes, and the week seemed long even though it was short, but now it is a sunny weekend and it’s all okay.
The clean and dirty laundry mixup, nooooo!
This was a Jonah day, for sure, Nicole. I’m impressed that you forged on, because I would have walked into the community center after dealing with all the other crap, and backed out immediately, because no.
The most important question, though, is – did you have a glass of wine with your dinner that night? Because you more than deserved it. (Perhaps more than one??)
I saw the grad pics on IG, and all looked lovely. Hope the dental surgery went off without further hitches. Sheesh.
Thanks Anne! The surgery did go off without a hitch, thankfully, I do not need any more hitches!