For the past 24 hours, I've heard just about enough of this phrase I can handle. Alas, the Puget Sound area in WA has been blessed with a blast of cold temperatures and snowfall which has steadily persisted since yesterday evening. It couldn't have arrived at a less opportune time for my plans last night and today.
Molly has fallen in love with a local, weekly event held for children in our area. It's a pajama story time at the library that happens every Wednesday night. After a yummy beef stew dinner we headed out to our favorite Wednesday night hangout. When we got there, I saw several kids dressed in their PJ's with their parents but the room set aside for story time was not yet set up. I figured the librarian was running behind, thought nothing of it and followed Molly to the coloring table. 10 minutes past the hour rolled around and still no gathering for stories. I asked another parent if they were aware of anything going on and proceeded to learn that it had been canceled for the evening. Apparently there was a sign at the library entrance. Oh well. Molly was a trooper and had a good time anyway, playing, reading books, and interacting with the other kids.
I had been looking forward to today for many weeks. My well laid plan was to attend a music therapy meeting in Seattle after dropping Molly off at her class. A good friend of mine agreed weeks ago to pick her up and bring her home for the afternoon and evening until I was done in the city. Every detail I could possibly think of was arranged and set. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a details person by any stretch of the imagination!
Molly and I had our morning routine and even left a little on the early side for class. Some of the roads still had some blankets of snow. However, the driving was not all that treacherous provided you were cautious. Got all the way to the facility to find the lights off and the doors locked. And I'm not the only parent who showed up. I proceeded to call my friend to update her with the situation. We agreed to meet at the ferry to switch over Molly and all her plunder. They'd just get to spend some time with each other a little earlier than planned! Molly cried when I pulled away without taking her inside. It made me so sad.
I did a speed-of-light check on Facebook when we came home briefly for me to get ready for Seattle. There I saw the update that her class had been canceled. Oh well. We were able to adapt and overcome! I fixed us both a sandwich for lunch as fast as I could and headed out the door again for the ferry.
Once we arrived and Molly was good to go with my friend I bought my vehicle ticket and found a place in the queue to wait for the ferry. The day before I printed out several pages of information about the meeting (times and location) so that I'd know where to go/what to do. I figured I'd call ahead of time to find out parking information just in case. And I'm so glad I did. My phone call intended for parking info became a rather unpleasant surprise that the event was canceled. You guessed it. Because of the weather. Apparently this update went down on the listserv that I thought I was on already. Guess not. There weren't very many vehicles behind me. So, I got out of the Jeep and walked around to find an employee. There was a man standing nearby with a radio and I told him my predicament. I explained that I understood the possible reality of an nonrefundable ticket. However, I did want to get out of line in lieu of going all the way to Seattle for a canceled meeting! He was very helpful and was able to get me successfully out of the queue. He then told me to park the Jeep outside the office and to return to the ticket booth for a refund! They gave me no hassle about returning the ticket money. I made sure to thank them profusely for their assistance and graciousness!
Now it was time to inform my friend of what happened. At this point I was about to boil over. Absolutely nothing had gone the way I planned for a day to which I had very much been looking forward! She was already minutes away from being home with the kiddo. When I announced that I was coming to retrieve Molly my friend insisted on my taking a few hours just to myself. She explained that Molly was happy and doing absolutely fine. A trip back home to change out of my professional attire, a venting phone call to Mom, and a Starbucks vanilla mocha decaf later I was pretty much back to my old self. And from that point on the day went smoothly without any unpleasant surprises!
There are things I can think of that could have been done to avoid learning the hard way about these cancellations. Perhaps if I had fought for an opportunity to check online ahead of time (though I frequently did already) we may have avoided unnecessary trips out into town. Thinking more about this I remember that I have a 2 year old. And usually the opportunities for such things as Facebook and web surfing are few and far between! I had no idea that the weather would impact these events like it did. And even then, the time that had passed between my last attempts to stay updated really hadn't been that much.
Perhaps if we paid for local TV, or even TV period, I would have received the updates that way. It still doesn't make me want to sign a contract for cable or satellite. We honestly enjoy not having TV in the house.
Perhaps it was just a lesson in rolling with the punches. As if this hasn't already happened to me enough as a military wife!
I'm so incredibly thankful for the blessings I had in my friend that helped with Molly. It makes me shudder to imagine how these situations might have turned out if she hadn't been so gracious to us. And I made sure to affirm her with this appreciation every opportunity I could think of!
