Everything is making me cranky today.
My husband. My children. The stranger at the grocery store who stood too close to me. My colleagues and students thousands of miles away. The dust on my table. The dried-out skin of my hands. My sore thighs from the YMCA bootcamp class I tried today. This computer screen. Everything is turning me into a cranky mom.
I could- I should- “wellness” the heck out of this feeling. How many links have I seen online in the last 10 days for how to stay grounded? Connected? How many tips have I seen for how to practice self-care? How many recipes have I bookmarked and tried? How many pretty pictures with inspiring messages have I looked at or shared myself in an attempt to make this feel better?
You know what did make me feel better today? A budget airline ticketing company, that’s who. Hear me out. The budget airline ticketing company has refused to refund my money for my canceled flight to London, but they did take the time to send me a survey asking me how likely I would be to recommend them to a friend, on a scale of 0-10. Ha! I answered 0. This cranky mom is not recommending anyone use this website to buy themselves airline tickets.
Then they asked me to explain why, and I got to shout my rage and frustration and confusion into the void of the comment box for just a minute.
I told that budget airline ticketing company how mad I was. How horrible everything is. How ticked off I was that I couldn’t take my daughter to see Hamilton when she has dreamed of seeing this show for years. How much it sucked to have my flight canceled even though I know we wouldn’t have boarded the plane in a pandemic anyway. The comment box couldn’t argue back.
I told that budget airline ticketing company that even though their entire business has bottomed out, I still wanted my money back for the canceled plane tickets. I told that budget airline ticketing company that the world is terrible now, but they could still have the decency to refund my money for a service they did not provide. I told them that they should fix this. That they should work to make things better for me. For everyone. Please, I begged, do something!
I know that virtually yelling at the comment box will make no difference in this situation. I know a thousand people got the same automatic message today and that the budget airline ticketing company has much bigger concerns right now than my 0 ranking.
But it still felt good to vent my cranky mom rage and yell at something without risk of my little girl’s eyes welling up. I felt a little better being able to say how aggravating the situation is without a certain someone also stuck working from home telling me at the same elevated volume just how aggravated he is about the same situation. It felt better to tell that box what I thought in a not particularly polite tone, and know it wouldn’t roll its eyes at me and slam its door shut.
I wish you, reader, well. I wish you and your family safety. And I wish you a little box on the days when you’re most cranky to write all your emotions into.
