A day late...and short-tempered

In spite of my influence, my daughters are INCREDIBLY thoughtful people. As my friend Cathy would say, "They get it from their dad." They really out-did themselves this year in the present department. Sydney personalized my classroom wall with hand-painted letters spelling out "Room 24"...each letter carefully customized with a sea shell border. Savannah spent an entire year crafting together a calendar featuring my dogs in monthly-theme specific settings. Loved it...loved it...loved it!

Until one day...

"Uh, Mom," Sydney's voice drifted out from the kitchen, with a  curiously questioning lilt. "Yeah?" I didn't actually move from my chair as this curiously questioning lilt is often reacting to something spilled, broken or gross.  Fool me once...

"Did you notice anything strange about Savannah's calendar," she asked. I perked up. Savannah's a huge fan of the hidden Mickeys at Disney World so maybe she constructed some sort of secret puzzle for me to discover within the calendar. I walked into the kitchen where Syd was pointing at January. "What," I asked, not getting it. "2015. Mom...what year is this?" "I'm not a coma victim," I snapped, reddening with embarrassment and then dismay.

Oh no. Savannah spent a lot of time on this. How was I going to fix it without her knowing? I called up the company that published it:  Click and then Engage in Small Talk and had an infuriating conversation with the customer service representative who refused to sell me another copy with the corrected dates because I wasn't associated with Savannah's account. "I'm not asking for access to the nuclear launch codes," I snapped, "I'm just trying to get a new calendar." I may have also pointed out that professionally-speaking, Click and then Engage in Small Talk might have figured out that someone ordering an 2015 calendar in October of 2015 might have been making an error and have gently intervened. By the end of the conversation, Click and then Engage in Small Talk had lost a customer. I don't think they really cared (Which also tells you something about the company).

So...with fine-point Sharpie marker in hand, I set to work...righting that which had been done wrong.

"Uh, Mom," Sydney's voice drifted out from the kitchen, with a  curiously questioning lilt. "Yeah?" I didn't actually move from my chair because I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW. "You do realize that 2016 is a Leap Year?" "Sydney," I snapped, "stop treating me like I've recently suffered a brain injury." And then I gasped.

So...with fine-point Sharpie in hand (and Sydney's White-Out), I set to work. Talk about your personalized calendars!