Mistakes--Ah, Nevermind

To err is human to forgive is divine.   Alexander Pope

Mr. G came into the bedroom, "hey, aren't you going to get up?" I had fallen back to sleep, so I smashed my way out of a dream I was having about my Grandmother teaching a small boy to play the cello as I was taking care of the baby brother. [Ever the caregiver.] I flew into action and we were up and out of the house in no time on our way to Ikea which is about 90 miles away from us.

Despite the rain, despite taking a few wrong turns getting there, despite the jungle of merchandise within the city of Ikea, despite getting disoriented in the vast building, we had a good day. Not only a good day, we were able to pick out and agree on a counter top for our laundry room-- the sole reason for the trip. Done and done. Nothing fancy just a robin's egg blue formica top and we loaded that boxed item into the truck and headed for home.

Lucky for us we got invited to our good friend's house for dinner which was particularly meanful when you haven't had time for lunch. We got home fairly late and didn't want to unpack that counter top.

A Saturday Night Live Skit:
Emily Litella [EL] "What's all this I hear about condemning violins on the TV? That is the dumbest thing I ever heard, violins are such a nice instrument..."
Jane Curtain, "Miss Litella, Miss Litella"
E L, "What?"
Jane Curtain, "Miss Litella, it's violence not violins!" 
E L "Nevermind."  
Gilda Radner as Emily Litella, Jane Curtain on News Update Saturday Night Live

Today was devoted to yard work and because I was excited to see the counter top, I peeled back the card board with a great deal of caution so as not to harm the formica. To my everlasting horror, it was not the lovely robin's egg blue but a dull, dull grey. Immediately I thought, "how could we have been so stupid not to double check to see that we had the right one!?" I was really pissed at myself, and roared around the yard with my hedge clipper taking it out on the plants. I kept mentally revolving back to the idiocy of not checking at Ikea. Then I thought, "geez, give it up. It's only a laundry room counter and not as though it's your kitchen counter." And besides "I should be more open minded about colors, after all some people actually like grey." Not me but some do. I really didn't want to be a prisoner to my negativity. So I continued the yard work and stomping around trying my best to face the facts: we certainly were not going to drive 180 miles to replace something that was wrong but perfectly acceptable.

The day was sunny and fine. I kept chastising myself for being annoyed and I kept trying to feel OK about the grey. Hard to feel truly awful on a sunny day in the garden.

After a bit, my husband came home from his errands in town. I said, "well, we blew it, the countertop is definitely grey, too bad we didn't check."  Without saying a word, but with a certain smirk on his face, he picked up the counter top and turned it over. It was robins egg blue on the other side. Nevermind.

A view of the Bridge of Sighs that prisoners look at from a small window in their prison in Venice.

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