1.  The out of town ball game we had tickets to for last Saturday got moved to Sunday. And it couldn’t have been lunchtime on Sunday, oh no siree. They rescheduled it for four o’clock which meant not getting back until after ten heading into a seriously intense week. Because of course they did.

2.  Like that wasn’t enough of a wrench in our plans, T-man popped a fever on Saturday afternoon. He usually runs low so when that thermometer started inching towards 101° things took an unpleasant turn. But it’s like I always say: no road trip’s complete without stopping for an emergency stash of DayQuil™.

3.  Crunch time clothes shopping for a holiday event outfit is not my favorite thing. Crunch time clothes shopping during the Christmas season insanity dances dangerously close to Dante’s 8th circle of hell.

4.  In my brilliance I decided I’d do all my family dinner shopping in one fell swoop. One hardcore grocery store attack that would last as long as it lasted until the job was d-o-n-e. It seemed a solid plan until I realized my shopping list was about fifty items long and required a number of double backs to find something I forgot. That’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back.

5.  Ten minutes of that was a particularly fun mission hunting for the specific snack I’d promised Bear I’d bring home. I finally swallowed my pride and asked for directions only to have an employee tell me they didn’t carry those chips because oh my lord, of course they don’t.

6.  There was a reception I wanted to go to Friday night – shocking, I know, yet true. But it turns out one of the crappy things about being a grownup is sometimes you’re physically incapable of being where you want to be. Like literally incapable due to the laws of physics and other science-y stuff. Once someone figures out a way for me to be one hour away at the girl’s basketball game then ferry her to a friend’s holiday party while simultaneously being at my own thing I’ll be good to go.

7.  When your kid’s got to be somewhere at 6:30pm on Saturday so you make dinner reservations for 5:00 except 6:00 rolls around and the food is nowhere to be seen. NOWHERE. I mean, are you kidding me? It has to be this hard? REALLY?!

8.  Oh, and when you’re trying to get to that 5:00 reservation on time except everything’s all jumbled up and you’re the one who has to let the dogs back in but they’re covered in mud so you’re wiping down their paws when you realize you’ve just gotten mud on the sleeve of your white sweater that it took four sweater purchases and two returns to find. Bless it all.

9.  I actually spotted a light out on our tree and pulled it so we could replace it except it turns out we can’t seem to get the teeny tiny bulb out of the casing and in the process of trying managed to break off the wires that bent outward so now the circuit’s incomplete and instead of having one tiny light out we have a whole section because of course we do.

10.  There’s nothing quite like rain for three days straight before people are supposed to come over. Because exponentially increasing the odds that the dogs will streak across our light carpet with their muddy paws and bellies doesn’t add to my stress in any way. Nope.