Pinata's and The Bank Lady

I don't think there is anything that I hate more in life than disorder.  Noise has to rank up there pretty high but I'm still pretty sure that disorder tops my list.  I like my world organized and if it all can't be in order I want at least parts of it to be.  Instead I feel like every bit of me is living in chaos today.  My thoughts are all jumbled, my kids aren't their normal happy selves, my house...oh...my house is in absolute chaos and my plans for the weekend are in limbo because of a blizzard.  Even the lady at the bank created chaos for me.  I feel like I've been split into a billion bits and stuffed inside a pinata - and the pinata happens to be center stage at an eight year old's birthday party!  (Not that all eight year old birthday parties are crazy, my nephew had an awesome one last week.) 

My intent here isn't to complain - I know full well that even on the worst of days I am blessed beyond measure.  I just need a place to put everything.  The bathroom mirror fell off the wall in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  It made a crash-crash-crash-crash noise like nothing I've ever heard and scared me to death.  Thankfully it wasn't one of my kids doing all the crashing - that would have been awful.  This is just frustrating.  The mirror didn't break but it sustained some damage to the frame.  It will be relatively simple to fix and I have everything I need - I just don't want to have to deal with it.  I want to go back to last Saturday when it was hanging so nicely on the wall, ya know?

TDM was supposed to work for a local farmer on Tuesday.  And Wednesday.  And Thursday.  But the weather this week changed that schedule.  He is working today, which I'm thankful for - and yet, I'm not thankful.  I want him to be home with us today to help me hold a very fussy Smiley Girl and to help me handle a very whiny and defiant Miss E. 

Today has just been a bad day all the way around.

Because TDM ended up being home all week we spent a good part of Wednesday and Thursday working on re-doing our kitchen.  I bought wallpaper last winter thinking that it would be a good project and it never happened so when we were searching for something to fill TDM's week that project seemed like a good option.  I'm so happy to say that after two days of work there is not even one wall in the kitchen totally complete.  Not one.  By the time we took into consideration all of the factors - wall damage, the 'lines' created by cabinets and the mental picture of a mad woman the plans changed about four times.  I am so thankful that TDM jumped right into the project but I'm absolutely frustrated about the state of the kitchen right now.  It is not frustration with my husband, though I'm sure that several times in the last few days it has come across as that.  I'm simply frustrated that doing a project has to be so frustrating.

And the bank lady.  She makes me want to use bad words.

Twice a month we withdraw a specific amount of cash and need the bills to be certain denominations.  It all goes into the fuel tanks of the Big Red Truck but because paying in cash gives us a 3% discount and 3% of a whole bunch of money is a lot of money TDM prefers to buy with cash.  Since a whole bunch of money in $20 dollar bills amounts to a really tall stack - so we ask for $100 dollar bills. 

Sounds simple, right?

The problem comes in when the woman who I will affectionately call 'The bank lady' doesn't seem to understand that she works at a bank.  At least four times now I have had this same exact conversation with the same lady:

Me:  I would like to withdrawal X amount of money and I will need to have X amount in one hundred dollar bills.

The Bank Lady (TBL):  I don't have X amount of hundreds.  I will give you what I have and the rest will be in twenties.

Me:  I don't want twenties, I need hundreds.

TBL:  I don't have hundreds.  I will give you twenties and fifties.

Me:  I won't take twenties and fifties.  I need hundreds.

TBL:  I only have a few.

Me:  The WHOLE bank is out of hundred dollar bills?

TBL:  Well, no.  But I only have a few.

Me:  There isn't any way for you to get more?

TBL:  I'm all alone.

Me:  You are the only person in the entire bank?

TBL:  No, but I only have a few.

Me:  So, the bank has hundreds and there are other people in the bank who could get them?

TBL:  I only have a few.  I will give you twenties.

Me:  You can't get any more?

TBL:  (Long pause)  It's going to be a few minutes. 

By this point I can tell that she is getting really frustrated with me and occasionally I have felt the need to ask her if she understands that she works at...ahem...a bank.  Today I offered that she could give my cards back and I would be happy to drive to a branch twenty miles away where they do have hundred dollar bills.

And I really wasn't meaning to be mean or sarcastic - I really would have been willing to drive to the other branch because the local one really isn't convenient when I have to spend that much time haggling to get what my husband needs.  Sometimes I end up with two screaming kids as we have this conversation.  I realize that it is most likely just a misunderstanding but I don't know how to get beyond this conversation with her.  She probably thinks I'm the dumbest thing walking the planet because money spends the same way no matter what the denomination and doesn't realize that carrying around a bunch of twenties is inconvenient in the same way that carrying a hundred dollar bill can be when you're purchasing something for five bucks.

Anyway, that's the jumbled mess in my head this afternoon.  Hopefully my girls will be back to their normal and content selves again soon.  And next time we need cash I'm seriously considering driving to the other branch.  At this point I am really struggling to be nice to this lady!