Snow Time Like The Present

The snow actually looks pretty..the quietness of its fall, beautiful white blanket of Nature's perfection, no tire marks yet on the street, no noise of shoveling, it looked like the perfect invitation to curl up on the sofa and spend a few hours daydreaming of how I loved it. The simplicity of it. But, I had work to do .

I had to get the application to the client today,. Working from home is never easy ...and throw in a 3 year old who believes YOU work form them, well, there went my invitation.

The last few months I have been working from home to spend more time with our daughter Maddie which, with being an agent for a large insurance company, didn't aways happen, as my husband Jim went to work outside the house. I do have to say that I thought I had managed quite nicely to balance work and motherhood, I thought I had devised a perfect and sanity-free inspired workflow that made it tolerable...until today.

Jim had left for a 3 day conference with his pharmaceutical company and I had a lot to do with my client list rounding out new business.

While typing away on the mac, I gulped down the rest of the coffee in my cup which, by now had turned to a cold, tasteless void thanks in part to Maddie, our 3 year old, who just had to get the tv remote wedged into the toilet. She put it there because apparently the dancing frogs on the television that I was so sure would keep her amused, was obviously not her cup of tea and decided I should be aware of her dislike in my choice of programming.

I sighed and got up from the table and reluctantly found her a more favorable option to entertain her while I played go fish for the remote and then went to make a new pot of coffee.

While I waited for the steamy, hot, comforting elixir to brew, I continued to look out the window at the snow falling down, now at a more steady pace , I wondered if the weatherman was right for once with his projected totals that were expected.

While waiting to hear and smell the wonderness of my fresh pot of coffee to start brewing, I began proofreading the application. Being an insurance agent is usually a rewarding job, sometimes very fulfilling....but sometimes , like today, it's the opposite.

The client was a new VIP to our office and I was given the account to write him the best coverage I could with our top company. The client was just impossible this morning. Before he and I settled in a rate he was finally acceptable with , he had been up in arms about what incompetent tiny imbicles his last agent was and that HE was important and if our agency didn't do right by him he would put a complaint in with the State. He was screaming... Maddie was screaming.... I somehow started to feel that my perfect and sanity-free inspired workflow was going to H-E-Double hockey sticks in a handbasket . I thought it couldn't get any worse... I was wrong.

You know when something suddenly happens and it takes a second to register in your brain? Well, it took me two.

The client wasn't screaming.. the TV wasn't screeching.. my computer wasn't computing.. and worst of all my Hope's and dreams of savoring a new hot cup of joe were snuffed out as I peered into the kitchen and saw that the light on the coffee pot had vanished. Even Maggie stopped screaming.

I finally came out of my shock that a second chance of a HOT cup of coffee was unobtainable (remember the cold, tasteless void in a cup?) I realized that the power had gone out. Looking out the window at the snow still coming down, now even faster , I deduced that the storm had knocked it out .

Could this be ANY worse of a morning?? I mean I'm positive that Mr. "I Am More Important Than You" thinks I have now hung up on him, which will prompt a call from him to the boss, which will prompt a call from the boss to me ..eventually, I mean no phone at the present . Maggie probably feels I am a monster who stripped her of all TV priveleges, and I can't even get my hot cup of coffee!

By now it was mid day, the white the snow coming down seemed to make the inside of the house darker.

While sitting there at the table in disbelief, thinking of what a horrible day this has become and what a disappointment as an employee and mother I was, I was shaken out of my "poor me" thoughts by Maggie who had walked over to the bay window, pointed at the snow and firmly exclaimed that we should make S'mores . Yes, because in a power failure caused by a blizzard that is always the first thing I think of, don't you?

It was mid afternoon when I decided that Maggie actually had a great idea. So , I lit the fireplace, went into the kitchen to gather the supplies and came back out to the quiet darkness of the livingroom.

We sat in the stillness of the house,in the darkened room with only the glow of the flames to light up room, and ate our warm , gooey treats while we sang songs, laughed and made up "campfire" stories. I even got a little inspired by the simplicity of being stuck in the house during a storm with absolutely no power for light, no computers to compute, no phones to connect me with screaming clients and no TV to play annoying kiddie programs thatI taught Maggie how to do shadow puppets against the wall with just the light from the fire . I didn't think of my quest for a hot cup of coffee once!

My heart swelled as she laughed and hugged me. We continued most of the night with our singing and shadow puppets , loving the simple , precious moments we were experiencing, no technology, just us. The fire was just about out and we fell asleep on the floor, hugging each other, wrapped in warm blankets and smiles .