It’s a Friday night here. I have a glass of wine to my right and my phone updating to my left. My “near the end of her life” dog is wandering the house, clicking her nails against the hardwood floor and setting my husband into a tailspin of frustration.
Frustration. I think that’s this week’s word. SO much frustration here. Yet there have been wonderful things happening too. But let’s start pissy and end up positive so we all leave smiling. Shall we?
- As I’m driving home from a lovely weekend art festival trip in Wisconsin with a friend, my kid follows my request and texts my hubby to see how his day went. He texts he’s had a great day until his computer told him he had a virus… but that he took care of it. *cue record scratch* If you haven’t read Heidi Cullinan’s blog post about this yet, it’s the same stupid fricking people that got her mom, so the second he said he’d taken care of things, I freaked because Heidi had just posted this!
- Using my hand-free phone system, I called hubby, John, and asked him to please explain what had happened. I tried to be calm while he told me exactly what I had expected. I really tried.
- So I’m just on the east side of Saint Paul when I hear this. I have a good hour, closer to ninety minutes until I get home, BUT THESE ASSHOLE PEOPLE WERE GRANTED ACCESS TO JOHN’S COMPUTER! BY HIM!!!
- He paid the pricks $200 for nothing.
- I do my best to help solve the problem while driving through metro traffic. Poppy, my 13 year old, was Googling up a storm. She was amazing. I need to take her out for her fave treat this weekend to say thanks. She was terrified, literally shaking and worrying that our whole world was going to collapse because she’s heard about Internet safety since she was in the womb! Nonetheless, she searched all the terms I asked her too and read the info so John and I could figure out what to do.
- Finally Poppy and I get home. Poppy cries. She requires lots of hugs because she just rode 90 minutes without a one when she needed it most so I could get home as fast as possible to fix things!
- John had already disconnected WiFi so the fuckers could no longer get into his computer and I worked to get his log in password changed. The computer refused to boot up so the assholes ruined his computer. Great!
- All that was last Saturday night between 8 and 10. Sunday the computer went into the shop where the lovely Colin helped. He’s a great guy. Seriously!
- John’s guitar pegs that he ordered in July were finally in. Well, this was the second time the pegs came in. They accidentally sold his first special order set. So we took the guitar over so they could restring the puppy. They called at 8:01 saying it was ready, but we’d have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up because they’d already closed out their till. WHY THE HELL DID YOU CALL THEN?
- John’s favorite jacket needed a new zipper so he’d taken it in to get fixed. He got a call it was ready on Wednesday. GREAT! Except they were closed when we arrived. We missed them by 10 mins. Thursday they were only open until 5:30, the exact time I was delivering Poppy to a friend’s house with no time prior for a pick up. So he waits until Monday. We can deal with that.
- I had been calling my old stylist’s new salon for a week trying to make an appointment or series of appointments so I could get my hair done before GRL. I seriously look like Kim Davis at the moment. No luck! So I scheduled with a stranger who I know nothing about. The last time I did this, I ended up with a mullet and tears. I’m canceling tomorrow.
OKAY, now on to the good stuff!
- Late Saturday night when I first got home, John called his credit card company and reported fraud.
- Sunday morning we not only renamed out WiFi network, we also changed all passwords.
- Did I mention how great Colin was yet? Yeah, he not only did the diagnosis on John’s ruined computer for free, but he fixed my laptop for no cost that had been wonky since its repair in June.
- Monday morning $200 was put back into our bank account, all the funds recovered.
- John got a new computer that not only has 4 times the working memory but is about 100 time better than the old POS.
- I got to spend last Saturday afternoon with a long-time friend I met through writing and her son and my daughter.
- I bought a new wrist cuff that is pretty!
- I saw how much Amazon put in my bank account!
- I received swag in the mail for my GRL Supporting Author signing.
- I created and ordered stickers I hope will get here for GRL.
- My paperbacks shipped today!
- I was invited to my local library to represent area authors… and they know I write Gay Romance!
- Tomorrow I get to buy Word for Mac 2016 and the entire house gets to share it!
- Since the whole scam thing, John has decided he needed to wake up and no longer coast, assuming other people will watch out for him. He took a freelance editing job that he never would’ve considered before because of technology, despite easily being able to accomplish the task in minimal hours.
- And last but not least, I got a great hair stylist rec from fellow author Tina Blenke, who used to live a few blocks from me before she decided to move across the country and abandon me. (Love you Tina, but I fricking miss you!) Apparently she was ready to move her stylist with her, he was so awesome. So I called him and GOT IN! So excited! And you should see what he does with color!
This week has been filled with chaos. Thank the stars there was good amidst all that crap!
