What a Week

I've realized something about myself this week that is pretty awesome: I've seriously grown up. I'm not sure when or how it happened, but I had a couple things occur over the last several days that would have turned the old Kate into a sobbing mess. Instead, I handled both like the big girl I am.

My new action plan in case of emergency.

The first "thing" was cracking my iPhone screen. I'm a total klutz and actually broke the Otterbox that had been protecting my phone from its many falls over the last couple years. Since its volume button was already broken, I figured it wasn't worth investing in a new case since I'd be upgrading soon anyway. Not wanting to rush the pricey upgrade, I was very cautious with my naked iPhone and several weeks passed without event. I even figured out quick workarounds to increasing the volume so that the broken button wasn't a big deal. I was hoping to sail through another few months as-is.

But, alas, my luck had to run out. While walking to pick up the girls I nannied (yes, past tense, my last day was Friday) from school, the phone slipped out of my hands like a wet fish and fell flat on its face on one of Philly's cobblestone sidewalks. The screen was shattered pretty bad and, though shattered screens are apparently "hip" now (seriously), I knew instantly that I was going to have to get a new phone ASAP. Even though we had an upgrade available, I was not pleased since even a with the phone at a steep discount of $99 there were also taxes, an upgrade fee, a new case, etc. I figured we'd be out at least $200.

I was so frustrated, especially since the job was supposed to be finished a week earlier and I felt like if I hadn't been rushing to get the girls, I wouldn't have dropped my phone in the first place (though, let's be real. This is me. I would have dropped it eventually). I sighed, stuffed my phone into my purse and, as soon as I did, rain started pouring from the sky. I was without an umbrella and still had to pick up the 4-year-old from preschool and then push the double stroller over to the 5-year-old's school about 10 minutes away.

Pushing a 4-year-old in a double stroller over the bumpy Philly sidewalks is never easy - but when you add rain that is coming down so hard I had to take my glasses off, it's near impossible.

The old Kate probably would have started crying when the phone shattered... she DEFINITELY would have started crying when she had a shattered phone and was sopping wet. But I just used my frustration to propel that stroller as fast as possible and accepted that while both things were annoying, $hit happens. In the scheme of things that could get broken, an iPhone ready to be upgraded really wasn't the worst. It's not like I got in a car accident or anything...

And then Friday morning came.

It was my last official day of nannying (the other nanny returns from her trip abroad on Monday) and the dad said I could come in at 8 instead of 7 because only one of the girls had school that day. I was just a few blocks away and I suddenly felt and heard my car go "crunch." I was rear-ended.

It was another incident that would have brought the former Kate to tears (and, honestly, who would blame her?). But upon getting out of the car and seeing that the other driver and myself were both okay, I just accepted it. Yes, getting into a car accident sucks BAD, but no one was hurt and it could have been a lot worse.

The other driver and I were on the side of the road for about two hours dealing with police, insurance companies, and AAA for her car. I think I probably would have freaked if I was at fault, but I wasn't and I didn't want to make the other girl feel worse so I sucked it up and tried to make the whole thing as pleasant as possible. I'm sure the cop was confused when he drove up and we were laughing together and making plans for a future coffee date (we actually decided to nix the coffee idea and are getting drinks on Tuesday).

The fact that I didn't cry at either my phone or car troubles was a huge win in terms of me feeling like I am finally turning into a real adult. But the thing that most surprised and impressed me is that instead of my brain immediately going to the negative and trying to think of all the ways that both things were horrendous and how my life isn't fair, etc. my brain immediately jumped to the positive.

I felt so mentally and emotionally HEALTHY. And that's not something this anxiety-laden gal has often felt. If this is what being a grown up is, then I'm not minding so much :)

Oh, and did the new iPhone cost $200 like I expected? Nope. It plus an extra wall charger and a new car charger only cost $4.87 after I traded in the cracked one. So that was pretty sweet ;)

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