Honestly evaluate the way you respond to crisis situations. Are you happy with the way you react?
This is a tough one to answer. Don’t accuse me of cheating on this one, because I’m really trying to answer the question honestly. Crises come in many forms. Some of them we can see coming, like being in the path of severe weather. Some hit us upside the head with little or no warning, such as the sudden illness, injury or death of a loved one.
Does having time (even if it’s not very much) to prepare help a person deal with these things better? Like a rational, level-headed individual?
By the time a person is my age (old) you would hope that we would learn to deal with things in an adult manner, and turn to problem solving and working together in order to work through a crisis.
While life has dealt me a lot of crappy hands in this game over the years, some of them like a sledgehammer to the knee caps, it has helped me with those mad problem solving skillz.
Or so I thought.
Death, divorce, disease, financial ruin, even natural disaster. Yep, I’ve had em all in my life. I am still kicking, and you’d think that I would be like Chuck Norris now, when it comes to this kind of shit.
Not so much. A lot of you know I got married in May. Let me just tell you that my advanced age did not prevent me from becoming an overwrought, shrieking Bridezilla as the big day drew near. EVERYTHING felt like a crisis. Why do we let that happen? It’s just so ridiculous!
The night before the wedding, we had our rehearsal at the church. We had decided to go totally casual for the rehearsal dinner. Guests were arriving,many after long flights and drives. It was hot, and they were tired. We thought pizza, salad, dessert and cold drinks at the church would be great. No one would have to dress up or find a restaurant in a strange town.
I had arranged to have this dinner delivered to the church on a specific date, at a specific time. In true anal-retentive over planned bride to be fashion, I had confirmed this rehearsal dinner three times with the restaurant manager.
Our rehearsal ended AT 6:15. Dinner was to be delivered at 6:30. (By this time, any bride knows that you are following a very tight schedule and any variation no matter how minute, can send our over stressed bride into a tail spin)
6:30, 6:35, 6:45-no dinner. 30 hot, tired, hungry people, one freaked out bride. I called the pizza place in a panic. The manager (even after multiple confirmation calls) scheduled our dinner to be prepared and delivered on SATURDAY! The day of the wedding.
ME ON A NORMAL DAY
I totally lost it. I went from “very stressed” to hot-mess-meltdown-worthy-of-a-reality-tv-show in about 10 seconds flat.
WHAT’S MISSING FROM THIS PICTURE? MY REHEARSAL DINNER, THAT’S WHAT
I was so out of it and freaked out, I didn’t even know what to do. I told the pizza place I would call them back so they could suffer my wrath some more make things right when I calmed down. After breathing into a paper bag for a few minutes and a lot of tears and screaming, I got my Busey on and called them back.
THAT’S RIGHT BITCHES! YOU’RE GOING TO SEND MY PARTY THROUGH YOUR BUFFET FOR THE PRICE YOU QUOTED ME AND GIVE US OUR OWN PARTY ROOM, RIGHT? OF COURSE YOU ARE!!!!
So, we had a happy ending. The restaurant bowed to my unreasonable demands~even giving us an extra gift card for our trouble and all were well fed. But I was pretty upset with the way I handled this “crisis” when in reality, crisis is hardly the word I should use.
After the loss of a business to a tornado, caring for an ill parent, the sudden death of the other, divorce and all that other stuff, you’d think I’d be more of an adult over something so trivial. I really hope it was just a very bad case of bridzilla-itis, and that in the future, I will keep my cool when things go wrong.
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That many hungry people gathered in one place could constitute a crisis. I mean, what if some of them resorted to cannibalism? That might put a damper on the wedding. You reacted quite appropriately, dearest Cheeky. I’m proud of you.
Seriously? Well, now that you put it that way, you may be right. Thank you, I feel better about it now. Can you help me come up with a good excuse for getting falling down drunk and embarrassing myself at the reception? I’ll be waiting impatiently.
Um, yeah. It was YOUR EFFIN’ WEDDING!! You get to do what you want!!
Ha ha, I was teasing. I didn’t do that. I sweated every drop of booze before it had time to get to my head. It was 95 degrees the day we got married. I had a drink in both hands all day. One margarita, one bottle of water. I was chugging just to keep myself upright. Everybody was.
Sounds fun!
Oh, how I laughed at this. I am great in any crisis that invloves spurtting blood, or natural disatsters or multi-car pileups. Or all of the above. Zombie apocolypse or end of the world time, call me. But the little stuff, I can get a little … edgy…edegy?…edgey?… cranky.
After pulling myself together so many times with “real” disasters, I was appalled at my behavior on this one. Gimme a tornado, a broken leg or something like that, and I’m all about the delegating and holding it together. Maybe subconsciously, knowing this wasn’t a matter of life and death, my brain decided to let me freak out more than I should have.
I think you did it because Hollywood has made women think that is how they are supposed to be on their wedding day.
Maybe. or that I was over tired, excited and had spent a year and way too much money to pull this thing off. It was like popping a big zit. It was ready to blow at any time. Good thing it happened the night before, when only a few people saw it, and not 100 wedding guests.
Happiest day of a woman’s life they say…
One of the happiest. Not THE happiest. If it is, then how superficial is the relationship? And then it’s all downhill, right? I have many happy days behind me, and am hopeful that some of my happiest are still ahead.
This comment gives me hope for all mankind…
This would make for a great chapter in a memoir if you expanded on it, Cheeky. I was just starting to get into it, and then it ended!
hmmmmmm, well if I ever write a memoir, there will definitely be some chapters on my epic fails and face plants. I’ll let you know if and when it’s gonna happen. Nice to see ya!
Keep me posted. That would be killer! It’s always nice to see you. I miss bickering with you.
Me too!
Ah, wedding nightmares. The woman that was altering my wedding dress dropped it off at my mom’s on the Monday before my wedding and it was a train wreck. One of my bridesmaids and her mom had to sew a “stand-in” dress in 4 days…..I should have known the marriage was doomed!!
Yikes! I’m so sorry to hear that. Hopefully life is better now?
Absolutely….I have a smile on my face all the time now.
Would it have been worse if the pizzas arrived on time, but with incorrect toppings like bbq chicken & anchovies?
I don’t think they would have cared, really. But we ended up getting a much better deal. 30 folks stuffed themselves at an all you can eat pizza buffet for the low price I had been quoted for the undelivered dinner.
You had every right to blow a gasket and bust a gusset.
Busey-Bride was probably the worst thing my darling new husband ever saw, but he married me anyway. Love is blind, right?
You reminded me why with all my marriages I did it at home in my living room with just a very few people I wanted there (or had to have there. haha) that and I’m lazy.
Well, I’ve told my husband when we get married again, we’re going to the courthouse. It was a beautiful fairy tale wedding and all that shit, but I don’t think I’d want to do it again.
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YOu froke, but look how it all turned out! You’re like the model couple now, huh? A couple of models, anyway…
Oh, the “marriage” was never in doubt. I just tried to do too much wedding for what I could handle, in a lot of ways. Too much DIY. Good thing all my kids are boys, I’ll probably never be involved in planning a wedding again.
LOL you can only hope.
Food is VERY important to me. I always make sure the people I care about are well fed so I can’t even begin to imagine how I would have felt in this situation.
Um, maybe like I did? I bet you could rock The Busey Face. It sure comes in handy. Even over the phone. I can feel the fear on the other end of the line. Luckily, this is a weapon I don’t have to use very often
I’m afraid that if I rock The Busey Face that it’ll stick.
Buaaahaahaahaaa! It won’t. I use it all the time. It has many uses.
Hopefully not in bed.
AAAACCCCKKK! I’m wishing I could unread that!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!