Tested Patience

On Saturday, I had several lessons in patience.

At this age, I’ve noticed these days happen to me occasionally, and I’ve learned to recognize them as they’re happening. Then I give it a smile and a nod and welcome the next challenge so I can overcome it, take the lesson, and move forward with my day rather than be frustrated.

I had a great run and workout in the morning. I was off to a strong start with my day and had good momentum. I made my shake and headed to the grocery store, where I wasn’t very efficient. I did a lot of walking back and forth as I remembered other things I needed. Being the impatient person that I am (note: Questioners hate waiting in line; it’s just not efficient), I looked around for shorter lines or faster options. Since I didn't have too much, I thought the self-checkout would be faster than the line I was in. Oh, Janae.

Not only was it slower, the machine had a freakout. It wouldn’t let the employee help me with my coupons. So the time I lost by switching lines and having the machine break, probably ended up costing more than my coupons saved me. She ended up having to transfer me over to her stand to finish the transaction, with two or three other people approaching her with issues in the interim. The whole thing was a major ordeal, and the lady I was standing behind in the other line was long gone by the time I finished. That’s what I get for being impatient.

Do you ever do that thing that I do? Where you try to find the fastest lane on a three-lane road, or even on the freeway? And then you make note of the car you were behind so that you can see if they end up ahead of the lane you chose to be in? I do this all. the. time. I always try to remind myself how often I get behind where I originally started just because I get impatient. But I still make the switch, and often end up regretting it.

Then, instead of going home and showering, I decided to go to the bank to get a new debit card. I lost mine at Cornbelly’s on Thursday evening. How long could it take to get a new one, right? Wrong. I guess Saturday at 11am is the time everyone else does their banking too? The line was super long, and it seemed like nobody had a simple deposit/withdrawal transaction. All of them were more complicated, including my own.

I waited and tried to force myself to take deep breaths, recognizing the trial of my patience this morning, and just accepting that this was the situation. I had hoped I might make the 12:50 matinee of the Joker, and pick up my Megaplex popcorn bucket, but breathed and was just ready to let go of that possibility with all I still had left to do at home.

When it was finally my turn, I got called up to a teller who was not only new, but had really slow motor skills. I’m not saying that to be rude; these are just things I notice as a former teacher (and as a really impatient human). She was really similar to the DMV sloths in Zootopia. Every mouse click was a slow process, and typing my card number in was a concerted effort for her. It took her quite a long time to break my $100 bill, because I needed $35 for Kelsey’s NPC show that night, and it took her even longer to make me a new debit card. I told her I lost mine, and assumed I’d be given a new card and number. But she had to ask another teller how to make me a new card, and the girl actually was going to re-issue me the same card number. I asked the other teller if that’s what they recommended, since I lost my card. She said it was up to me, but that if I kept the same number to keep an eye on my account. I told her I’d go ahead and take the same card number and watch my account. The contrast between talking with the two ladies was pretty stark. Plus I was watching the drive-thru teller bounce around back and forth from the desk to the drive-thru to try and help alleviate the line. She was super quick and efficient, and I wished she had been the one to help me, but I understood why she was on drive-thru. I had to again remind myself to let go of my plan, as this was not going to speed up, and understand that she was doing the best she could.

The teller gradually hobbled over to pick up my newly printed card. She unhurriedly handed it to me—particularly excited to tell me to feel the card, warm from the machine printing it.

All of this took much longer than I anticipated. With the 7-10 minutes I lost at the self-checkout at the grocery store, and the 25 minutes I lost at the bank, the likelihood of my seeing a movie was dwindling.

Plus, I still needed to clean my house (I have a hard time relaxing and enjoying anything if I still have stuff left on my to-do list), and had to shower from my workout.

I didn’t get done with unpacking the groceries, cleaning my house, and showering until about 12:50 anyway, so I decided to just enjoy my Saturday. I ate some food at home and went to Barnes & Noble where I picked up a hard copy of the Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman and Nan Silver. I listened to the audiobook and loved it, but needed a hard copy for all the questionnaires and evaluations that are in it. Thank goodness for 15% off coupons!

After that, I drove to the Megaplex at Jordan Commons, picked up my 2020 popcorn bucket, and filled it up! Then I took it home to watch the rest of season premiere of the Walking Dead.

Matthew and I took our drive through the Alpine Loop, and then sat in 45 minutes northbound traffic at 6pm on a Saturday. I wasn’t expecting traffic at that day and time either, but what can you do?

Since I recognized early on that my patience was being tested, I was able to keep my cool and not be frustrated about the day. Everything turned out totally fine, and I had a good day. Grateful for these frustrating days that make me slow down and let things go.