Growing Up

I've decided that adults become "adultish" or "age" not because of the number of years they've been alive but because of the number of things they go through. Or more accurately, the way they handle the number of things they go through!
Yesterday was an aging day. And I think the way I handled it was.....anything but exemplary. Gr.
It wasn't an entirely horrible day but things added up so that by the end we both felt like someone had it out for us! It was Sunday and laundry day. Justin had to go to church early because he was singing so I followed and in classic me fashion, was running behind. Because of this I didn't have time to drop the laundry off so I took it to church. Not a huge deal, happens all the time. I just make sure the underwear are covered by the towels!
After church I made the laundry run which involves going to a gas station for change and then dropping it all off.
In the afternoon we were back in town for a Christmas pageant and planned on switching the laundry to the dryer on our way there so we could pick it all up on the way home. As we were driving we started talking about how the car has been weird lately and, right on cue, it stopped working. Seriously. We're driving, and all of a sudden the engine starts revving and the car slows down. We made it the rest of the 10 blocks to the church by shifting down to second gear (drive acts like neutral)...and then it smelled like burnt rubber when we got out of the car.
Now my immediate response to these situations is a few tears. A few tears is all I need and then I can be rational and optimistic but I need a few tears. Unfortunately, you can't do that in church with 37 kids preparing for a play! So instead I got grouchy.
A kind friend let me borrow his truck to go to the laundry mat and when I got there, the towel load said "unbalanced" and hadn't washed! So I "balanced" it by lifting and closing (or slamming) the lid and threw the others in the dryer.
The pageant ended (so cute by the way) and another kind friend helped us deliver the car to the dump...I mean a shop, and drove us to the laundry mat (to pick up the dry load and stick the wet one in the dryer) and then home.
At home we decided to beat the day by hanging up Christmas lights and lighting candles!
An hour later we went back to town and the laundry mat to pick up the final load, using Justin's work car which has been kindly lent to us for a YEAR by some other kind friends!
Annnnnd...the towels were still wet. I hate the towel load! We loaded them up anyway and drove to our dead car to pick up Justin's wallet which we'd left behind. Driving home we spotted a car for sale so Justin pulled over to get a better look. He tried to undo his seat belt....
"Are you serious? Your seatbelt won't open?"
"I'm serious. This stupid thing is stuck!!"
"Of course. Of course it is!"
At this point I began laughing hysterically, here's my strong capable husband, stuck in his seat belt, muttering venemous threats under his breath. And then suddenly it came undone! And by "undone" I mean, it broke clean in half! (Sorry Brad and Steph, we'll fix this before you come home!) Justin just sat there, holding the fragments of seatbelt in his hands as I nearly choked with laughter!! What else can you do!? So we gathered up the pieces of our seatbelt and our load of wet laundry and went home and had some tea.
Because I know this isn't the last of these kind of days, I want to learn to take them well. I spent much of my day angry and discouraged and it didn't make anything better when I could have gone through the same circumstances with a smile and avoided a killer headache!
A friend of mine said: "Life is funny – I’m pretty sure that it takes all of it to learn whatever we are here to learn!" and I think she's right.