LIFE IN THE STRESS LANE

For the last twenty one years I have worked at the same company, slowly but surely working my way through the chain of command. Even after being with a company for this long, I learned one very important fact today...stress never leaves your life, it only disappears for a while.

The last two weeks have been incredibly stressful. This is one of those situations where the workload, current condition of the company and on-going increase in expectations continue to build up over a period of time where you eventually realize long periods of pure stress. Headaches, pain in the upper neck, not sleeping well at night, grumpy at times. All symptoms of pure stress with no release.

Well today my lovely wife Janet dealt with some of her own additional stress. You see Janet is an Avon rep, and a good one at that. She has worked hard over the last ten months to build her business, all while babysitting up to three children, two consistently, and trying to take care of a household and family and, probably the worst item, putting up with me.

Today was the first day of Dazzle Days here in Conway. Janet had placed a rather large order with Avon to ensure she had plenty of product on hand for this annual event. Dazzle Days is an event where you buy a ticket to go in and buy stuff... I never really got the whole Dazzle Days thing unless it is raising funds for a non-profit or something along those lines. I mean why would you pay $25.00 for a ticket to go in and buy products at full price from vendors? Well that I cant answer, but I can tell you that it is very popular annual event.

Back to the product. Janet gets her product delivered once every two weeks and the product should show up at our front door no later then Wednesday. Perfect for Dazzle Days which starts on a Thursday. Perfect, that is, if the product actually gets there on a Wednesday. Well, you guessed it, we came home from the Avon training center in Little Rock around 10:45pm Wednesday night fully expecting to see her order sitting there waiting for us. Oh ney, ney...hum. No product. No delivery. Okay, whats wrong with this picture? Oh well, we have had this happen before only for the product to show up early the next morning. But, you guessed it, no product.

9:00 and no product. Stress level six.
10:00 and no product. Stress level eight.
11:00 and yep, no product. Stress level twelve.
12:00 and no product. Stress level has gone into cardiac arrest mode.

Why so high you ask? Well good question. With Dazzle Days your booth must be set up by 4:00pm on the opening day. After that time, you cannot bring anymore product into the center. So stress right now was almost to the point of complete emotional breakdown. Then on top of that, you have paid, up front, $350.00 for the booth so no product, no set up, no Dazzle Days. $350 down the drain. Unhappy Janet, unhappy Chip, unhappy everything.

Next step, call the delivery company to find out what the problem is and see if we can come up with a solution, but only after calling me (the innocent victim) and telling me the issue. Hey you guys know me, all I did, even though I was trying to help, was to increase that stress level to internal combustion mode. Ughhhh. I always seem to do that. So Janet got in contact with the shipping company.

"Where is my product kind sir", said Janet.

"Well we had a driver quit yesterday", said the kind man, "and we have had to reroute your product and we're not sure when it will be delivered. It is on a truck but we cannot give you a scheduled drop time" said the kind man.

Well this sent Janet into complete and uncontrollable panic. No product, four hours to have the booth completely set up with all product in the building and ready to open at 6:00pm. So what now?

Well that answer was easy, a quick and simple prayer. One reached out to Him by me and one reached out by her. It is always comforting to know that God is there. Your prayer may not be answered, but He is always listening. And no matter the situation, His will is perfect.

Needless to say, Janet got her product. See, her next call resulted in a simple solution to the problem. She would meet the driver at Home Depot, provide some ID and get the product delivered off the truck. Whew...problem solved right? WRONG!! Two hours to get the product to the location, set up the booth and get all product on display by 4:00. But how? A one man show isn't going to get this job done. Chip is at work in Sherwood. Marlana is working and cant get away. So who? Well, once again a solution. Janet does the only thing she knows to do, she checks Christopher, to his GREAT joy, out of school, drags him to Dazzle Days and begins getting the booth in order.

Now she truly knows why God gave her Pherby. It was to be there in time of need, true desperate I have to have you need. If for no other reason, he was placed on Earth for this one simple reason, to ensure Janet's Avon booth was ready to go at 4:00pm. at Dazzle Days Thank you Christopher for helping where you could.

It was comforting to me when I got the text telling me that she had her product, had her booth half way set up and was going to make the deadline. Thank you Lord.

By the way, if your not doing anything over the next couple of days, come by the booth at Dazzle Days and check out the end results of "Life in the Stress Lane".

Until next time,
Chip