S'more pain, please!

Joy: The sleek, newly installed microwave got christened with a marshmallow and a graham cracker to make a s'more. Happy, happy food.

Pain: The meeting I was in at work, approximately 90 minutes after the installation, where the five men I was sitting with all said they would have been more than happy to install the microwave for me, saving me the $150 installation fee. It started with me mentioning that I had just arrived back in the office after being home to meet the installer.

Bill: "Oh, yeah, I just installed one of those."

Kathie: "One of those? As in an over-the-range microwave?"

Bill: "Yeah, for our daughter in California while we were there for Christmas."

Tom: Pointing at the housing units for visiting staff across the street, "You know how many of those things I put in over there?"

Mike: "Yeah, we could have created the space for you to have it put in, cabinets, erveything."

Kathie: "There already was a space."

Mike: "You mean you were just replacing one? Not adding a new one?"

Darryl: "That means it would have been really simple; the hardware was already there."

Kathie: "Well, um, he drilled some additional holes in the cabinet above..."

Bill: "It probably came with a cabinet install template."

Kathie: Voice rising, "There's this thing on my kitchen counter right now that says, 'Upper-cabinet template'!!!"

Tom: "Kathie, you have brothers here that you need to ask for help when you need it."

Kathie barely refrains from slamming head on table, blurts out, "Crap," instead (yes, in a meeting where I work), and wants to vomit.

I did ask for help for the garage door opener installation. Actually, I asked for Dave to look at the broken one. When he saw the condition of the gears, he offered to install the new one.

This microwave has a vent and a fan and a light and stuff...I wouldn't know what to do, so I don't even know how to ask help for what I don't know how to do. Uggghhh! Grrrrr! Arrrrggghhhh!

This post and the microwave shall serve as my $150 reminder TO ASK FOR HELP. I missed a chance to be a better steward with my money; one of my brothers missed a chance to bless me; I missed a chance to be blessed.

As Lara so beautifully said a couple of weeks ago, "I am learning to be imperfect." Amen, sister, amen.