Like a roller coaster, but not a scary one.

This week has been crazy. Remember when we left off and I was all aflutter over a lost set of keys (keys we STILL haven't found, so thank goodness he just called off the search and procured the new key that afternoon) and how they messed up my day. Well, the week didn't really get better. Work is craziness because I have an action memo out for comment for a case we were trying to get before the Commission by year end (now bumped to January's end, thank goodness). I had a PTA Board meeting Tuesday night that I had to bring all the kids to because James had late lessons, but luckily the kids were awesome and just colored quietly for an hour while Cora sat on my lap and glared suspiciously at everyone else. On Wednesday, I was expecting four boxes from my rash of online ordering on Cyber Monday. Most of the things were small, practical, and inexpensive, but I ordered two nice necklaces from Ann Taylor as potential Christmas presents for myself from my grandparents, and, most importantly, a new DSLR camera I'd been obsessing over for MONTHS. Basically a year. Research and best prices and should I or shouldn't I and James begged me to stop talking about it four months ago and just buy the damn thing, but it was many hundred dollars and I needed to obsess more. I got a bonus in the fall for a big case I successfully brought, so I was going to use the money for that, but then I chickened out for a few months longer. But my D90 was purchased 5 years ago, had taken 19,000 pictures, and the shutter was getting slow, and I am the keeper of our sacred memories and so then finally, at 11:35 p.m. two Mondays ago I finally pressed "checkout" and a shiny new gorgeous Nikon D7100 camera body was sent on its way to my house.

My house, now with more lights!

So I moved on from obsessing over the purchase to obsessing over the delivery. There were delays and delays and then on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. I got the email saying it was at my door. I had worked late (or "late") and our nanny doesn't work Wednesdays so James had the kids at the pool, so there was no one to get it. No worries I thought, I'll be home in a few. At 5:38 p.m. I pulled up to the door and there were no boxes. Allegedly my Ulta, Old Navy, and Ann Taylor purchases had been delivered as well and they were also missing. My stomach sank. There'd been a million posts on our neighborhood facebook page about the increase in package thefts and I suddenly realized we might have become one of the victims. We waited all night to see if maybe the delivery notice had been made early, but no. With a heavy heart and sick stomach, I realized $800 of stuff- the biggest online purchase I'd ever made and one I'd been obsessing over for nearly a year- was gone. I couldn't sleep all night and on Thursday I got to work super early and began calling UPS and each of the retailers to see what could be done.

At the end of the day it looked like all my items would be refunded or reshipped. I needed to fill out some forms- an affidavit for the camera and some other things for each company's lost package claims process, but it would be okay. I still felt violated (or my front porch did), but I would be able to sleep that night. Then, at 3:35 p.m. school called to let me know my kids were there even though they got out at 2:55. Apparently our nanny didn't pick them up. I raced around, asking a mom friend who lives across the street from the school if the kids could run over to her house while I threw all my work in a bag and drove over, calling our nanny on the way. She's awesome and has been 100% reliable, so I was more worried than angry. When I finally got a hold of her she was in a panic because had been studying all day and just realized the time. She felt terrible, but I was already home, so I just hung out with the kids a few hours early which was quite nice. Unfortunately that meant I was up working on my memo at midnight, exhausted and cursing the changing precedent for antifraud violations and smashing to smithereens any thought I ever had to return to a firm. Nighttime work is not for me, unless it involves Shutterfly, barre, or reading paranormal Urban Fantasy romance novels until my eyes bleed.

Friday involved more memo'ing and one million errands after work, frantically making an appetizer for my Urban Yoga party (I ended up making this Feta Cheese Ball and it was crazy good) and, just as I was about to leave, finding a post-it note on our front door from a neighbor down the street we'd never met saying "UPS accidentally delivered several of your boxes to me on Wednesday, just come by to get them."

WHAT?!

So my boxes were not stolen. They were misdelivered, despite UPS's certainty they were delivered to my address, and my neighbor said she was busy all day Thurs. and just forgot to tell us until Friday night. I'm glad she had them and this is certainly not her fault, and if those boxes hadn't contained my pricey camera I wouldn't have been as carefully tracking their alleged delivery and then flipping out at the possibility they might have been stolen (and if our neighborhood crime watch hadn't reported boxes stolen from the street next to our just last week), but next time someone accidentally gives you boxes, please tell the intended recipient sooner than 48 hours later! I thanked her and then embarked on the un-doing of all my lost package claims from the day before.

So, faith in humanity/my front porch restored. Shiny new camera in hand. Party appetizer acquired. It's all a little anticlimactic now.

Somewhere in there we also had an appointment with a foundation company because the cracks in my walls are reaching epic proportions (verdict: totally fine; pier and beam foundation in good shape, we need to water it in the summer, which is a hilarious phrase to me, like we have little flowers growing down there or something, but not the expensive terrible fix we were fearing); appointment with a spray foam insulation company (we have none, NONE in our "attic" (we also do not have an attic), it's literally just roof, a bit of space, and then ceiling, so this will make a huge difference energy-efficiency-wise, though we won't have the quote until Monday so I'm not yet sure if we can do it); and had a gas fireplace installed so we can have fires inside for the first time ever. Of course it's 75 degrees outside, so we need another cold front before it gets regular use.

Fire at the turn of a key!

In the long run, nothing super bad happened, it just felt very roller-coaster-y as it was going down. I also went to barre 3 times, Cora decided to start waking up at 6 a.m. (usually it's 8), and work was super busy. I taught barre today and had my biggest class ever and the energy was amazing, so that was really wonderful. And Landon brought home a progress report with the lowest grade being a 96, so that's really wonderful too. And Claire has had all green smiley faces (meaning perfect behavior) on her behavior chart for the WHOLE year so far. Not even Landon managed that. Cora threw up all over herself at 1 a.m. this morning, but she was cheerful about it and has been great today- she even helped me plan out my barre lesson plan. So all is well.

And sugar cookie dough is chilling in my fridge to be rolled, cut, baked, and covered in sugar tomorrow, so all is about to get even better.