Water You Talking About??

Wednesday, I was washing dishes when the water in the sink stopped coming out. Nothing. This was curious. So I called the water department.

Apparently, I forgot to pay the bill. And they shut off the water.

So, I was told that I needed to bring my bill and cash payment to the water office downtown the next day.

I was completely stressed out about this. Back in the day, there were times when I couldn't pay everything. But these days, I can pay the bills. I just didn't pay this one.

My excuse is that I pay almost everything online these days. So, when I'm going through my bills, if I can't pay it online, I set it aside to write a check later. Usually, these are for magazine subscriptions and the like - not important stuff like utilities.

With the water bill, I just never came back to it. Completely blanked, just forgot. When I found the shut-off notice, it hadn't even been opened. I think it came right before the Iowan visit, and I set it aside. Then we went to Vegas. And I came back and went to my Grandpa's funeral. So things had been pretty busy, and this was not in the forefront of my mind.

I felt like such a moron! I felt so stupid!

Since I DO NOT function without a daily shower, my brother and sister-in-law were nice enough to allow me to take a shower at their house the next morning. I'm quite sure they had a good private laugh about my predicament. And looking back, it was kinda funny. Well, it would have been funnier if I didn't feel so stupid.

I was so stressed out about the situation, I didn't sleep well. Got up fairly early (for me anyway) and went over to my brother's house, took a shower, and called the water department. They told me if I paid it in cash, they could turn the water back on the same day. What a relief!

Before I left my brother's house, I realized that I forgot my jewelry. I managed to remember my contacts, but not my watch, ring, and necklace. I felt really weird, kind of naked.

I drove downtown, found a parking spot (luckily), managed to parallel park (which I haven't done in ages!), and went into the building. They had two "take a number" machines, one for the water department, and one for the power department. There were benches for us to sit while we waited for our number.

In front of the benches, there were a bunch of "windows" like a bank would have. Above the windows, there were digital readouts of numbers. When your number appeared on that screen, you went to that window.

This was stage one - you have to see a collection agent before you can pay your bill. I think this is to weed out all the other craziness people are there for - I could hear some people, one guy was buying a property, another lady wanted the water turned on for 2 houses, etc.

Because all I wanted was to pay and get water again, mine went pretty quickly once my number was called. The lady looked at my bill, asked me how much I wanted to pay (uh, all of it!), and did some things on the computer. Then she told me to go to the cashier window to pay the bill. This went quickly, all in all I was there for about an hour.

On my way to work (just a few blocks from the water department), I was feeling so tired, like I'd used all my energy for the day on that morning, all my adrenaline. When I got to work (late), everyone was very quiet, and I learned that one of my colleagues had been fired that morning. It was a bit of a surprise, a shock, really. I was running on empty at work and was really punchy. I did get a lot done, but I also took advantage of every distraction during the day.

I ended up staying at work until about 6:30 to make up for being late and to get caught up. I was feeling emotional by this point. When I got in my car, I just broke down in tears. I guess I just needed that release. As I was sobbing, I started to feel like, "Why am I so upset? This wasn't THAT bad of a day!" Then I realized I didn't take my "happy pills" or my thyroid pills that morning. I remember thinking about it, but there was no water. And I forgot to grab them before I left the house. That, combined with everything else, made it a challenging, emotional day.

When I came home, I checked the water, and it was on! That was a relief. Then I got undressed, took out my contacts, and crashed. I just wasn't going to function, didn't want to eat, didn't want to do anything and had a headache, so sleep was pretty much the only option.

I woke up about an hour later, had a big bowl of Cheerios, and felt a little better. Then I watched Barack Obama on the Democratic National Convention, and that was awesome and very uplifting!

I slept pretty well, and bounced back fresh and renewed today. Still feeling kind of stupid about the water thing, though.