Wednesday, February 07, 2007

By the Light of the Silvery Moon

It was around 10:00 a.m. yesterday when my ass decided to throw off the linen shackles of oppression and bust through the seam of my skirt, or at least it would have, had I not immediately noticed the tear and retreated to the bathroom for a bit of needle and thread work. And all this on a day when I was congratulating myself for having lost the 5 lbs that made the dress I'd worn the day before a bit looser.

Then, today, I as I was sitting at my desk reading a complimentary e-mail about me from my boss' boss and contemplating what a rock star I am, it came to my attention that I had majorly messed up a report and subsequently approved some requests that should have never been approved as a result. While my boss was very nice about it ("It happens. It's not like I haven't done it before too"), it left me feeling more Vanilla Ice than Mick Jagger.

If I didn't know better, I'd think someone was warning me against getting too cocky. Suddenly, my successes were all turning Amos Starkadder moments, wherein I was questioning whether it was puffing myself up too much to think about drive around the countryside preaching in a Ford van. In the end, however, I managed to cast aside the Church of the Quivering Brethren and find something really cool about my mishaps. I may have seen something nasty in the woodshed, but it didn't ruin my day.

There was a time when I would have freaked out over the skirt - not so much the damage as the embarrassment (a word that takes on a new aspect in this instance). Instead, I treated myself to a new dress at lunch. And, while I'm not thrilled about my error, once I'd taken ownership of it and done what I could to fix it (we'll see in the morning, whether it was too late or not), I felt better.

So, I choose to look at these things not as failures, but instances that show how well I can deal with obstacles without allowing them to grind life or my happiness to a halt. I think the universe wants me to look at it that way. If it didn't, I wouldn't have been able to find a flattering, $24, cute dress at Target with only a half an hour of time to shop!

2 comments:

Jen said...

I'm with the universe -- you're still a rock star! I'm sorry stuff came up that was TRYING, but I'm so glad you found your way over/around it. (and a new dress! what does it look like?)

I know it's a cliche, but I think it's true -- it's not what happens to us that defines us, but how we deal with it.

Martina said...

The dress is very cute - a wrap dress navy with little white geometric doodads. It also came in black, solid navy, and black with a white floraly print. Now if I only had new shoes...