Weird Evening

Quote du Jour:
When the going gets tough, the tough go to Starbucks.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Last night was bizarre, to say the least. I was excepting UPS to deliver a package to my house – DH’s new jump drive (thumb drive/flash drive whatever you want to call it). Got home and found it on my doorstep. However, to my horror, it was someone else’s package.

I ran upstairs to the computer and tracked MY package. It had been delivered yesterday about 20 minutes earlier. Location: Frnt Door. That’s what it staid. I’m freaking out.

Now, the thing about me is I freak out first and then figure out what to do. That’s just me.

Anyway, I immediately got on the horn to UPS to find out what the deal was. They were so confused. They couldn’t get what I was telling them. They didn’t understand what was up. I gave them the tracking number of the package (that wasn’t mine) that I had and they said, “I show that it was delivered at 3:40 pm and left at the front door.” By this time, I wanted to scream and yell at the dummy. But I remained calm. I said, “Yes, that’s right. BUT it’s NOT my package. It’s someone else’s.”

Meanwhile, my 3-year-old is crinkling paper in the background and going “Mom Mom Mom” over and over again.

I get transferred to the proper department. I get some dude who says, “We’ll be happy to pick that package up for you.”

And I said, “Great! But where is MY package?”

Huh?

Good golly. You’d think I was trying to draw blood or something. I explained to him that it was an expensive piece of equipment that I NEEDED right away (not really, but you know…) and I didn’t appreciate the driver just leaving it somewhere else. The light bulb must have finally snapped on because he took all my information and told me the distribution center would call me back within the hour.

As I hang up the phone, I hear the toilet flush. Thankfully, my son was just going potty and not flushing a toy.

Anyhoo… as I’m pacing back and forth and trying to decide my next move, I get an idea. I call information and ask for the phone number of the person whose package I have. It was a wrong number – a fax machine. So back to the computer I go. May I say that switchboard.com is the bomb? I look up the guy’s number through switchboard.com and WA-LA there it is. I call him up.

I tell him who I am and that I live about four blocks from him. I ask if he’s received a package addressed to me. Turns out, he has. I told him I had his.

“You wanna switch?”

I couldn’t get out the door fast enough.

Luckily, it all turned out okay. The guy was nice and didn’t rip me off.

So as my son is eating dinner, the phone rings. It’s UPS calling me back. The lady said she was confused and she didn’t understand what was going on. *heavy sigh* What is with these people? So I explain to her again what happened. She was mortified. At least, it sounded that way. Very apologetic. She said she would make sure her manager knew about the incident.

Personally, I think they should have offered to pay for my shipping after nearly giving me a heart attack, but that’s just me.

So now that the stress of UPS has settled down, I’m reading my book and my son is playing. He all of the sudden stops and looks at me and says, “Mom, my tummy hurts.”

I’m in the process of asking him if he needs to go potty (because we’re still learning THAT phase of potty training…urgh) and as the words escape my mouth, he throws up. All over the living room floor. Damn.

I rush him into the bathroom, get a wash cloth handy, feel his forehead. No fever. No nothing. He gets finished and says, “I feel better now.” Then runs away to play. Apparently because he ate his dinner so far, it made his stomach hurt.

So after cleaning the floor and the toilet (UGH!), the kid is fine and acting as if he was never sick. I give him some water to drink (because I’m just a little paranoid that he might do it again) but he’s fine. He takes his bath and I put him in bed. But around 9:30 I hear, “Mom, can I have some Star Wars crackers?” (Cheez-Its put Star Wars on their box, so to him they are Star Wars crackers.) I felt sorry for him because he was hungry. How could I tell him go to sleep?

I get him a banana and a piece of wheat bread.

Finally get him in bed and I collapse as well.

This morning I treated myself to Starbucks. Heaven in a cup.

Slow & Steady
Another 1000 words or so on the new WIP. Gaw, but it’s slow going. At least I got some words down.

Had no energy to work on the serials yesterday, so I must devote some time to that today. One issue each, that’s the goal. I have a partial on the romance, so that helps. I just don’t know where I’m going with the romance now so I’m stumped. And if I’ll just get going on the adventure serial, I can get on a roll and just go.

Went to PF Chang’s for lunch yesterday. Co-worker talked me into going and totally gorged myself. I had the lemon chicken (best I’ve ever had, IMO) and I was so full I could hardly keep my eyes open. And talk about miserable. OH MY GAW. I skipped dinner. Even Coke couldn’t pull me out of the sleepies.

Finally got on the RWA PRO loops. I had trouble before and my membership never went through, but I finally got on the Industry and Craft loop. I’m looking forward to being a sponge and absorbing as much info as I can from these loops.

This week, I’m getting my submission ready for Cindy Hwang over at Berkley. Why am I so nervous about it? I don’t know. Got some excellent feedback from the critique loop through my chapter. Got back several crits on chapter four. Haven’t had a chance to look at the comments yet, but that’s on the agenda for today too.

Guess I better get to it!