Does this ever happen to you? When you are focused on a task, with a very precise outcome in mind, things along the way often become maddeningly more complicated than they ought to be:
- Trying to make anything pretty using Microsoft Word. Let’s leave aside the fact that I’m working with Word 2003. All the templates in the world don’t help. You still have to rearrange everything to include your own pictures and text. Text boxes?? The “genius” who thought those were a good idea should be carted away. The fonts are humdrum, but heaven forbid you try to download and use nice fonts. You might as well stick with Times New Roman if everyone else looking at your file didn’t download the pretty font, too. This is exactly why smart people use Vista Print and other businesses to make up their invitations.
- Dress Shopping. SuzyQ needs a dress for her formal music recital. She has very particular requirements: appropriate for daytime wear (so nothing sparkly or shiny), a full skirt that’s at least knee-length, comfort and mobility for playing her instrument without tugging at straps or hiking up a strapless bodice. I have requirements, too. It should not cost as much as a wedding gown, and the dress should not make SuzyQ look like a hooker. How much success do you think we have had?
- Finding out if you have won. This has nothing to do with the task I have been occupied with. It’s just a piece of frustration to add to the pile. SuzyQ has been waiting for weeks to learn if she won a scholarship from an organization. She put a lot of work into the application: 3 recommendations, an essay, transcript, SAT scores. All applicants were to have been notified in the first week of May. We are in the 3rd week now, so SuzyQ had to contact the committee herself. It seems that the winners were contacted but not everyone else. This happened with another scholarship a few months ago. My sister learned she did not get the new job she was hoping for when she went to the website of the organization and saw the welcome for the new hire. Apparently, it’s too much work to group emails into “Congratulations” and “Thank you but unfortunately.” And it must be a lot more fun to observe unsuccessful applicants embarrass themselves by begging for results.
Two weeks to go until the big event. I wonder–are cupcakes complicated? Tablecloths? Folding chairs? It wouldn’t surprise me.
The Uncommonhousewife 