Last Minute Barriers

Friday morning I woke up before the sun rose, optimistic that I only had a few final touches on the report. I planned on working until Robby went to school and then travel to the office so that we could ceremoniously hit the "send" button. Feeling bad that I was not attentive to Robby during the week, I even toyed with the notion of pulling him out of school 30 minutes early to surprise him with a trip to the Animal Park.  Sipping the first cup of coffee, I was confident that I was destined for a happy and much needed stress-free day.

I should have kept my optimism in check because apparently I succeeded in jinxing myself. My "finishing touches" ended up taking far longer than I anticipated. After waking early and frantically working almost 9 hours, the final file was ready to send. At least, that's what I thought.

With my boss sitting in the next room, we decided do a test email to make sure the files send and opened correctly. I'm glad that we took this precaution. After some troubleshooting I realized that the file was now too big. The limit was 5 MB, and mine was 6 MB.  D'oh! 

I packed up the computer and went home to tackle what felt like Mission Impossible. I needed to shrink my file, without compromising content so that it could be successfully sent. First my hips and now my file- why am I always struggling to shrink things?

Big props go to my husband who happened to phone during my meltdown on the drive back to our house. He listened to the issue and did some research for me. By the time I finally arrived home, he had several potential solutions. By remaining calm and talking me through the directions, I have no doubt he saved me hours of pulling out my hair and banging me head on the keyboard.

After another extraordinarily long day, the file was successfully transmitted at 2:40 on Friday afternoon. Sitting in my living room, my eyes were glued to the spinning circle as my email was being sent. When the confirmation finally appeared on the screen, I dissolved into a puddle of tears. Relieved that the report, which at times felt overwhelmingly daunting, was complete felt liberating.

It is now out of my hands. I can't predict the results, but I do know that I submitted my best effort. I left nothing out, and I did not cut any corners. While I know I'll be disappointed if we are not awarded the contract, I know that the decision is not reflective of the work I submitted. 

I feel a wonderful sense of satisfaction having the report behind me. I'll soon be ready to tackle another project, but I'm looking forward to just being a Mom for awhile. I need time to enjoy my family and recover.