Making Lemonade

While the year hasn’t necessarily started off with all good things, I feel proud of myself and my emotional maturity for the way I’ve been able to navigate and pivot among some unfortunate events.

First, my MacBook screen stopped working on my laptop. My work laptop. The one I use to prepare tax returns, and I’m trying to get ready for tax season. Not the best timing. Reminds me of a few years ago in early January when my website went down and I had to scramble to make a new one while sitting at one of my daughters volleyball tournaments on a weekend.

Next, I started working on my personal tax return to make sure I was on track with my own estimated tax payments and came to the conclusion that I am going to owe about $12,000, when I was expecting that amount to be more like $2,000. Yay for more business and more revenue, not so much for the more in taxes part 😬

Then, around 9:30 last night, I happened to check my email before bed and learned that my credit card had been skimmed and there were multiple charges trying to be made. Thankfully Citibank caught it right away and was able to lock the card and alert me, but it does mean that the card needs to be canceled and with Jenica and I leaving for Hawaii in a few days it’s pretty inconvenient timing. Not to mention all of the subscriptions and bill pays that I am going to have to contact to update with the new card information when it arrives.

In the past, that string of events would have really brought me down. That didn’t happen this time though, and I’m so excited about that!

I did have one moment of weakness where I was a little harsh on Jenica for misusing one of my expensive kitchen pans, right after my laptop screen stopped working and I found out it would be at least $600 to fix it, but I did come back later and apologize to her.

I have managed to keep a good attitude throughout, put my trust in the Lord, and even find good in these seemingly negative situations.

The screen going out on my laptop forced me to buy another inexpensive laptop so I have a back up, and also have one for the girls to use if they want to help me out with some admin tasks this tax season. In addition, I reached out to a local Apple repair place here in Oregon City, and was able to pass on my business cards to him, and hopefully get some referrals for my own business, in the process of using his. 

I would highly recommend him by the way, Mad Genius here in Oregon City. The owners name is Nate and he was so helpful by email when I first contacted him about my screen issue. He gave me lots of great advice and recommendations with no pressure at all to use his services. When I did decide I wanted to make the repair, he made accommodations to get me in right away and was super friendly and informative throughout the process. 

This situation has also made me appreciate my fancy laptop a little more. I bought it almost 5 years ago when I was still doing photography and editing pictures, and it is a really nice laptop that I have taken for granted since I’ve only been using it for tax preparation and admin tasks these days. I think I will appreciate it a lot more when I get it back.

As far as owing a lot in taxes, this has never happened to me before, but many times in my career I’ve had to tell others that they owe when they weren’t expecting it, so now that I have had that experience myself, I think I will be more empathetic to my clients, and be able to deliver that news more delicately.

As far as the credit card goes, I don’t really have a super positive outcome that has to do with that except for the fact that I really appreciate Citibank and the fact that they caught it right away, and the incident won’t cost me any money out of pocket. They were also willing to overnight a new card to me so I will have that to use when we travel next week.

So that is how I’ve turned my lemons 🍋 into lemonade folks. It feels good to be able to find the good in all situations, even the ones that might not look (or feel) so good on the outside.