The Waiting Game

This has been a crazy week, especially the last couple of days. We found a minor leak under our kitchen sink that has apparently been going on for a while. Good times, right?

Before the insurance would cover any house repairs, we had to fix the leak. My husband is pretty handy and I enjoy taking things apart and figuring out how they work, so fixing it was no big deal, except that when we turned off the water before the leak, it continued to leak behind the shut-off valve. So more repairs.

Then when we turned the water main back on, it pushed a large amount of calcium buildup straight to our only shower and completely blocked the hot water. Maybe if we were in the middle of the summer and we still lived in AZ, this wouldn't be a problem. But we live in ID and though it's technically spring, we've had a lot of snow lately. So more dismantling of plumbing.

Five exciting trips to the hardware store in one day. And more aches and pains than I've had in a long time. Nothing like plumbing repairs to make me feel like an old lady.

Did I mention the dishwasher broke too? That's actually how we found the leak. And the ice maker in my fridge stopped working. Both the dishwasher and the ice maker are still incapacitated. We're living like cave people. Not really, but I had to buy ice. And there was snow outside at the time.

Okay, so I have a point. This isn't just a whine-fest for me. Really.

In the midst of all this, I still got all anxious and my heart fluttered a little every time the email on my phone dinged. I might've even obsessively checked it a few times. Why? Because I'm waiting to hear back from someone about my manuscript, and this week was the last week in the time frame they gave me to expect hear back from them.

I'm not complaining. I understand this business moves at a snail's pace, and there's a good chance I'll have to wait quite a bit longer and maybe even send a nudge. I'm okay with that. The point is, if I can't be distracted by all this chaos, is there really anything that can distract me?

We even went to see Captain America yesterday and I found myself thinking about my email at one point. And it was a very exciting, engaging movie. I didn't even try to dissect it to see why it worked so well. This is getting serious. ;)

So I'm turning to all of you for solutions. How do you distract yourself when you're waiting? Do you ever truly forget that you're waiting? Or is it always there, picking at the back of your mind, telling you that your email probably stopped syncing and you need to check it and manually sync it one more time just to be sure?