Nothing is easy...

Why do things have to be so complicated at times? Things that seem so obviously easy and simple somehow manage to become so very complicated in my world. Please allow me to elaborate, and then you make me feel better by telling me I'm not alone in my frustration and mental anguish over what SHOULDN'T be a big deal.

We recently bought a few new pieces of furniture to include a sofa, love seat (Yes, they still make those!), recliner and a dining room table. Everything was delivered and looked to be in pristine condition, however, we later discovered a 2-inch rip in one of the seams of the sofa, so we called the company to report the damaged piece. They have a process they must go through which meant a repair person would come to inspect the sofa and determine if it could be repaired onsite or if the company would need to replace the sofa. We should have just asked for a new sofa.

The repairman showed up and determined he could fix the ripped seam on the spot, so he did... sort of. I'm sure he did the best job he could do, but the rip was in an awkward location on the sofa and his sewing was NOT pretty, and there was still a hole large enough to poke your finger through when he was finished. I could have done a better job myself! I smiled politely at the guy, sent him on his way and then waited for my husband to come home that night just to see his reaction. Let's just say he wasn't impressed either. Now we're in wait mode for another sofa to be delivered. At least we can sit on the one that remains in the house until the new one arrives.

We also forgot to include a table pad for the new table when we were placing our initial order. I called back to the store to inquire about ordering this extra item and was told there were MANY, MANY options for table pads and we needed to come back to the store to choose one. Good grief, it's a table pad! If I'm using a table pad, I'm going to be using a tablecloth to cover it up, so no one will ever see the table pad. Why does it matter? We went back to the store to choose our table pad.

Our youngest son is playing baseball in the same league he played in last spring. The parents on each team are required to work at least one shift in the concession stand during the season. It's actually rather fun, but this time we were given a choice between two dates, neither of which work well for us as a family because my husband was scheduled to be out of town for both dates. Usually one of us works while the other one watches the boys. That wouldn't be possible under the circumstances. There is an option of hiring a teenager to work your scheduled time, and I decided to do this because it made more sense than hiring a babysitter just so I can go work the concession stand at the baseball park. I made arrangements to hire the teenager and my husband found out he's not going to be out of town after all.

Monday the boys were out of school for a teacher work day. A friend invited them to a birthday party at a swim club quite a distance from our house. We went, but knew we'd probably have to leave early because one of my boys had a baseball game and the other one had soccer practice. I packed up our vehicle with all the necessary clothing items in the event that we got caught in traffic and needed to go straight to the ballfield. I packed drinks and snacks and everything but the kitchen sink. We went to the party, left early as planned, and found out on the way home that both the game and practice were cancelled due to wet field conditions. I'd jumped through hoops for nothing.

We ordered a cake for a Scout bridging ceremony. I'd placed the order at a nearby grocery store bakery a few days ago, but experienced a slight language barrier with the lady working in the bakery. She wasn't the actual cake decorator either, so I didn't feel the least bit confident that she understood my request, so I later called to confirm the order with the cake decorator herself. This lady informed me they could only make my picture (one of those edible images) a particular size on the cake and blah, blah, blah... I had to cancel my order and go somewhere else with only two days before the event. I experienced another slight language barrier (It must be my southern accent) with the folks at the second bakery and while I'm a little more confident in their ability to understand my request, I'm not at all sure what that cake is going to look like when I pick it up at noon today. This could be a blog-worthy experience in and of itself.

Do you see what I'm talking about here? Why can't things just be simple and uncomplicated? Is it me? Does anyone else have these issues, issues that aren't that big of a deal until they all start adding up? SERENITY NOW!