Sometimes you plan.

I booked my flight.

I carefully decided on the best time to leave given when I needed to arrive and what worked best for my family schedule.

I booked the hotel room and worked really hard to find a great rate.

All set and ready to go.

Home last night packing leisurely while my kids were at A.W.A.N.A.

I was getting a head start so I thought.  No late night/middle of the night packing for me! I was going to be ahead-of-the-cure and get a decent night’s sleep.

Oh yes I was.

And look, extra time to record this week’s podcast!

I felt so on top of things!

I had recorded my thoughts about this week’s podcast on my iOS Notepad.

I had taken notes, gathered quotes, pulled together some illustrations, and felt like there was a clear direction and content that would be helpful to at least one or two people that listen in.

Looking at the time, I realized that I had time to get the podcast recorded before my kids got home so I gathered all of my equipment (computer, headset, and microphone) and got ready to record.

The phone rings.

It’s my husband calling to tell me that because of impending bad weather in Dallas, my flight will probably be canceled.

But it hasn’t been yet.

I try to call the airline with no luck.  All lines are busy and I’m not getting through.  Can’t even get into the hold queue. (Not sure I understand that.  How is an airline going to say “Call us back” for the better part of two hours).

Thinking of possible plan “B’s”, I call a friend who lives near the airport.

“After I put my kids to bed can I come spend the night with you? This way if my flight remains a go I can have a short drive to the airport.”

After all, who wants to brave the ice for 45 minutes at 4:30 in the morning trying to make a flight?

Problem solved.

The phone rings again.

It’s my husband calling.  He used his “executive-platinum-lifetime-I’m-the-man juice” to reach some department of the airline that I am not privvy too apparently.

My husbands saves the day and tells me that he got me on the last flight out… tonight.

Scramble ensues.

I was having a leisurely afternoon remember?

I throw put a few final things into my bag, grab my computer and all the attached wiring and toss it into the purse that I was going to clean out but was now not going to be able to.

The old tissues, receipts, and empty gum packets would remain another day.

I make it to the airport.

Oh shoot.

Do I have a room at the hotel for tonight?  Nope?

Cuz I wasn’t planning on going tonight.

Precious Lord take my hand.

Flight is delayed.  Hotel situation resolved while sitting on the tarmac.

Saw a friend on the plane!  We are headed to the same conference and the same hotel. Awesome!  We can share a cab.

We arrive safely and get to the hotel to realize that my friend has the wrong suitcase. Good thing is that the person on the other end was still local and didn’t mind coming to our hotel to exchange suitcases.

It’s OK.  I had three shots of expresso in my hazelnut white chocolate mocha anyway.

Yes. Three.

Waiting up with my friend is fun.  We talk about boys (Can you do that when you are over 40?  Yes. Yes you can.)

The gentlemen on the other end of the switch arrives.  I walk with her to make the exchange and then head to my room.

Oh no!  The podcast!

Not done and it’s 3 a.m.

I tried but needless to say, I woke up with a dead computer on my bed and ear phones still snug in one ear and falling out the other.

At least there was no drool on the keyboard this time.

Morning comes. Here we go.  Podcast will be done today.  It’ll be late but it will get done.

I record. Thirty-nine minutes to be exact.

A call from downstairs at the front desk reminding me that check out is at 11 a.m.

Checkout?!?!?! What are you talking about?

What do you mean the hotel is full?

What do you mean that I can check back in tomorrow night?

Oh well.  I’ll find another hotel. In the meantime, let me finish this producing and publishing the podcast.

I go back to listen over it and type the show notes.

And then I heard a beep. A loooooonng, HIGH, shrill, deafening beep.

Nothing recorded.

N-o-t-h-i-n-g.

Thirty-nine minutes of me sitting there talking to myself in a hotel room after braving a Texas ice-storm, going to bed at 3 a.m. and sleeping next to emitting radiation.

And nothing recorded.

It will get done.  But I give up for today.

I’ve got to get busy figuring out what hotel I’m going to tonight.

Sometimes life beeps at you and you just take the cue, sit down some where, and take a breather.

Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned and you have no choice but to roll with the punches or take a break to recover from the punches.

Sometimes you put in all the effort and when you look back you see nothing… absolutely nothing in your circumstances that has cooperated with your best efforts to get things right. And sometimes you are simply flat out of Plan C’s, D’s, and E’s.

Sometimes you plan.

Sometimes you pause.

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, things don’t quite go the way you would prefer and you just have to roll with the punches.

Sometimes, you do your very best at work and you still get the pink slip.

Sometimes, you do your very best with your children and they still disappoint or hurt you.

Sometimes, you go to the doctor every year, and you still get a diagnosis that catches you off guard.

Sometimes, you pride yourself in being a careful driver and because of someone else’s carelessness, you still end up in a collision.

Sometimes, you pay for the alarm system, only to have your identify stolen and a digital mess created that you have to clean up.

Sometimes, you manage your money well but you are still not prepared the foundation work you found out you need to have done.

Sometimes, you save yourself for marriage, and still end up with man who cheats on you.

Sometimes, you plan.

Sometimes, you pause.

This is me… giving you permission to pause.

You can pickup the podcast, the dreams, the burdens, the emotion, the thinking, the wrestling the WHATEVER…

Tomorrow.

Sometimes we just need a friend to give us permission.

If you need it, now you have it.

Enjoy the rest of your day my friend.

And feel free to take two if you need it.