Pretest-PASS

So,  I have been worried how I will handle things when Rob deploys. I will totally in charge of everything while he is gone. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a high stress person. I stress out easily whenever I feel like I am overwhelmed.

Yesterday, I had a pretest. I say it is a pretest because it is not the deployment, it was during the field, but it was a test. So, the bed and breakfast that we reserved a room for our get away withdrew the deposit. I was horrified. The owner had told me that he wouldn't and yet a month after I made the reservation, they took out the depsosit. I quickly had a moment of panic because that left us with hardly any money and we had a bill due on Friday. I called Robert immediately and told him not to buy ANYTHING. I then had to explain to him what happened. He freaked out and I calmly reassured him that I had everything under control.

I called the owner and I asked him what happened. He was horrified and quickly corrected the mistake. What had happened that an employee saw that we had not paid a deposit and they went ahead and took it. I called USAA and asked how long it would take. To my horror, they told me that it would not be in our account until Monday. I just want to cry. I cannot believe this was happening to me. I am sick as can and yet, I am trying to fix this.

My mind is racing and I am trying to figure out how to work this. We have USAA but they have no ATMs here so depositing money results in going to Walmart and using Western Union. Our WalMarts are suicide to go to. I called Direct Tv and removed us from the recurring debit payment. That way I can just send them the cash and they wouldn't withdraw it from our account.

I call USAA back again and the second person told me that the owner of the bed and breakfast could call and cancel it and the money would be immediately refunded. Easy right?? NO!!!!!!! He gave me instructions to give to the owner and the owner called back and said that it didn't work. So, I called USAA and they told me to try  to get him on a 3 way call. Okay, not hard. Yea, USAA hung up.... ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????? So, I call again and this time a LADY answered the phone. I proceeded to tell her the situation and our previous failed attempts. She then informs me that he can call them and call them directly via their extension number. WHAT???? NOW YOU TELL ME???? So, he calls and does give them what they needed. By the way, he is being awesome about this. I kept apologizing for constantly calling him, and he kept telling me not to because it was mistake on his part and he will jump through hoops to get our money back. So, he calls me and says that it's done and I should get my money back.

I thank him over and over and went to check out account. Money was not there. I called USAA after 20 mins and asked what the hold up was. The guy who I spoke with looked into and found that the guy who canceled it, removed it off one system but not the other one. So, he proceeded to remove it and BAM, it's back. It took about 2 hours to do all that. I called Direct Tv and they put us back on the recurring debit payment and it's like that never happened. By the time Rob called me after the gym (he's in the field), I was able to tell  him the good news.

So, take that anxiety about deployment. If I can handle that fast and effectively and without flipping out, I can do it for deployment. :) I was so relieved that I fixed it all by myself!! Then today, Bobby pours milk over my Iphone. MY IPHONE!!!! It worked just fine but the phone kept thinking that I had headphones in. After speaking with my friends, I reset my phone and BAM-it worked just fine.

If this field training exercise did not bump my confidence up a little about deployment, I do not know what will. I am so relieved that it is over and I am so glad that I was able to prove to Robert and myself that I am capable of handling stressful situations calmly and rationally.

So, you do not know how strong you are until you HAVE to be. I just proved it... Now, if I can just beat this flu bug before tomorrow, I will be on cloud 9 :)