Best Laid Plans

The shoes took flight.

The shoe pile, with a wedge
of space to open the door.

      Today was characterized by unraveling. It was clear to me when I decided to take a pair of shoes off of the shoe rack that hangs on my closet door.  I removed one sandal and almost the entire assemblage of shoes cascaded, pell-mell, one over the other, onto the floor.  GRRRR.

I try to maintain a “make-lemons-out-of-lemonade” attitude, but sometimes I fail. I was not seeing lemonade anywhere in sight.  The great shoefall was simply another in a series of missteps that occurred today.  I did what any sensible woman would do.  I squeezed out of the small opening afforded me by a door that was blocked by a pigpile of shoes.  Once on the other side, I pulled the door shut until I heard the solid sound of the door latching.  Problem solved until such time I was ready to deal. 

On a larger scale, plans for my daughter’s college graduation in Washington, D.C., plans initiated on July 27, 2011 when I made our hotel reservations, went awry.  An unexpected (and happy) letter arrived that started the unraveling in motion.  We were advised by the Dean of Students that our student was going to receive a very special award at a ceremony scheduled a day before graduation.  Flights, train passage and auto travel plans needed to be reworked if we wanted to be present en force as a family.  

The planning process was hindered by our recent commitment to host and celebrate the 

achievements of a dear cousin and his family.  When we finally buckled down to the task of rethinking our daughter’s arrangements, the clock seemed to be ticking louder.  We knew that such last minute changes tend to incur surcharges and penalties.  We didn’t predict exactly how much!  As it turned out, our simple desire to celebrate with our daughter meant that we had to deconstruct our plans and start de novo. We intended to stay within range of the original footprint of expenses.  After many texts, searches, emails and calls, a close approximation was reached.  With a sigh of relief, I can now turn my thoughts to packing for a four day trip.

Oh, wait, that means opening my closet door.