Rough Re-entries

Yesterday was a tough re-entry back to "regular life."  I always wonder if the tough re-entry is a sign that I'm living a less than integrated life.  Or would yesterday have been a rough day regardless?

The day began with a fraud alert from my credit card.  I am grateful that my credit card is so vigilant.  I spent time on the phone going over charges, realizing that someone had my credit card number and was using it to buy 99 dollars worth of something at gas stations.

If you're going to steal my credit card, do something fun--fly to Paris!  Have a great meal!

So now the card is canceled, with new ones arriving today.  Now for the fun of setting up recurring payments again.  Sigh.

At lunch time, I met my spouse at the car rental place to return the car, a fairly simple transaction.  But we discovered that the insurance company hadn't extended our lease last week, so we might have to cover the cost.  Later in the day, I spent more time on the phone, and happily, all is well.

From the car rental place, we went to the car buying place.  My spouse had done a lot of the work on Sunday, but there were some additional signatures needed.  It sounds like it would be quick, right?  Well it is a legal transaction and a transfer of valuable property, so no, it wasn't speedy, but it was as quick as it could be.

I stopped at Trader Joe's on the way back to the office, where it was more like Dec. 20 than Jan. 20.  I swallowed my irritation and kept on.

Swallowing my irritation--yes, that's a good way to sum up yesterday.  In a way, my swallowing began on Sunday night, when my spouse spilled a glass of wine which went into his laptop.  Yes, the laptop that we spent hundreds of dollars to fix just three weeks ago.  Grr.

But finally, it was evening, and we settled into our dinner of pasta after a ride in the new-to-us car.  It's a Nissan Rogue, a hybrid which will probably not get the kind of gas mileage that my spouse would like.  But it has lumbar support, a feature that's hard to find in cars that are in our price range and get good gas mileage.  It's a hybrid, so we hope that it's not as tough on the planet as some cars.  Still, we aren't living lightly on the planet, and I remain unsure of what to do about that.

As I moved through the day, I reminded myself to look for the blessings.  I have a job where I can get away, which most people don't have these days.  My re-entry wasn't as rough as it would have been if I didn't have a good team.  We have resources, so we can replace possessions like drowned cars and computers.  We have cooking skills, food, and a lovely front porch on which to enjoy the food.  My spouse and I are still together, even when life gets difficult.

Let me also remember the biggest blessing:  I had a great experience which makes it hard to come back.  I had time with old friends as I moved through last week, and that, too, makes it hard to be back.  I am lucky that I have so many friends, people whom I miss when we are apart.  Last week my soul was fed in so many ways, which makes my hunger this week even more acute.