Testing, Testing … Just When I Thought I Was Through the Fire

The post below was written on April 24, 2008 … one month ago, exactly. I never published it because it was too painful at the time.

Looking back now on what has happened since then, I was right – something (really a lot of somethings) fantastical was about to happen.

The book launch was amazing bringing us to #1 in all categories on Amazon and #8 overall on Barnes & Noble. We designated 20 new lawyers as Personal Family Lawyers. I’m living in my dream house and I’m going to appear on the Today Show on June 3!

Yes, I’d say something fantastical was about to happen.

Oh, and Jodi is still living with me after all. I didn’t have to spend $10,000 on the bathroom. She pushed through the stress of the move and realized that we’ve got a pretty great situation going after all even with a bathroom that’s not so hot.

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I know without a doubt something fantastically amazing is about to happen because the Universe is really putting me through the ringer to get to it. The ups and downs are almost (but not) unbearable.

On top of the two major launches I’ve got happening 2 weeks from today (my book and the Law Business Revolution), this week was moving week, a stressful time to be sure. But, moving into my dream house makes it just a bit easier.

I left town on Monday and left the move in the capable hands of my most amazing assistant Corey. (Have I mentioned how much I love Corey?)

Well, I got a call today that made the week nearly fall apart.

Jodi, my psuedo-wife, called while I was out of town and told me she hates the house we are moving into and if I don’t spend $10,000 to fix up her bathroom, she’s moving out.

A little background here …

We are moving into a house that is close to 100 years old. It’s my dream house. It needs a LOT of work. Jodi is moving into the basement apartment, which is basically two rooms and a bathroom.

When she first decided to move in, I had thought she was going to fix it up and make it cute. She’s a handy sort of girl. And then, two weeks before we were moving in she told me she thought I was going to fix it up for her.

Ok, surprise – miscommunication city.

So, I agreed to have the two rooms painted and the floors refinished. It cost me a couple thousand dollars to do all that, but I figured I’d need to do it no matter who was going to live down there. Cool.

Then, a week before we are going to move in, she springs it on me that she needs a new bathroom. Not cool.

Admittedly, the bathroom needed work. And, perhaps I should have taken the initiative to make sure that was done. But, I’m pretty sure I remember a distinct conversation in which I said “Jodi, I’m going through an extremely busy time of my life right now with two launches coming up and a house renovation and if you want stuff done, you are going to have to make it happen. I’ll pay, but you have to make it happen” so I thought she had it all under control.

Apparently not.

So, she started getting quotes to rip out and replace the bathroom. The least expensive? $10,000. I was not prepared to make that kind of an investment.

I let her know I just couldn’t do it, but that she should look into getting the bathroom painted and cleaned up. She didn’t do it.

Then, I leave town and it’s move in time. And I get the call from Jodi the day after move-in day, while I’m out of town at 2 days of back to back business meetings in which I’m the only woman present and she springs it on me that she hates the house and she’s moving out unless I renovate the bathroom. I say no, I can’t. She says she’ll have her stuff out before I return on Sunday.

I burst into tears.

Now, you might say “who cares Alexis, just find someone else.” Well yes, that sounds good, but I had given up my housekeeper because Jodi thought she was just in the way and was going to do the housekeeping and the laundry. Jodi was doing all the grocery shopping, meal cooking and was doing fill in childcare.

So now, I had nightmares of moving into a new house (and you know how stressful that is) with no groceries, no childcare, no housekeeper, and no laundry. It’s every single working mom’s nightmare. I nearly started hyperventilating. I had Jodi move in to make my life easier and less stressful and now she was sending me into full blown panic mode.

Ok, breathe. Get out of the problem and into the solution. It’ll be okay. Something will work out, it always does.