Once on of my internet mentors Kem Meyer wrote about moments that make you say, “Huh. How ’bout that?”

I had one of those moments yesterday.

My husband has a Gibson guitar that was really expensive. It’s probably one of his most prized possessions.  It has a lot of sentimental value as well as monetary value, and he freakin’ loves it. He plays it at church almost every week.

Well yesterday, it fell out of the guitar stand. It cracked in 3 different places. The pickups popped out. The volume knob shattered.

It was pretty upsetting. Which is really ironic, because any of you women who are married to musicians know that if their instrument is in the house with you, it’s kind of like having another woman there. I usually hate his guitars, because they take his attention away from more important things. Like me.

But I was upset because he was upset. And I’ll give you 3 guesses what I did. If you answered cry, you were right. Mostly it was just frustration because we couldn’t afford what we were estimating would be $300 to fix it. We sat there and said, “At least WE didn’t break. At least it wasn’t a car or one of our family members. This is a God-sized problem. He’ll fix it.” It didn’t really make us feel better at the time, though. Oh me of little faith.

So, after church, Mike goes to guitar center to get some estimates. Turns out it will cost $400 to fix everything– that’s more than it’s currently selling for used on e-bay. Basically, it’s totaled.

(this is the part where God steps in)

The guitar guy at Guitar center looks at Mike and looks at his guitar and says, “Hey, I have a friend who works for Martin. He is a professional repair guy. They pay him a butt-load of money, so he kind of does side jobs for people just to help them out. He’ll be here this Wednesday.” Mike says great. He asks how much the guy would charge him. Guitar guy says, “Uh…he usually charges about $25.” Twenty-five dollars. TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS.  And God comes through again.

Huh. How ’bout that?

God is not in the business of letting people down.

The story:
We had to get new car insurance. I’m sure most of you know it went up recently, and we never got on a shared policy since we’ve been married, so we figured it’s about time. So we find a place with a great price, and they tell us it will be about $160 down to start, which is fine. I mean, that’s a ton of money, but whatever, we have to do it.

Well, turns out after they run my VIN number, they see a hefty little ticket I received from drag racing down South Florida Avenue my sophomore year of college. They decide to up our first payment sort of like a deposit. They more than doubled it, which is basically my paycheck for an entire week. FREAKOUT. Holy meltdown while driving home from walmart. I think, “How are we going to do this? I hate pulling money out of savings…” I’m crying. It sucks. Just when you think your finances are starting to balance out, something always happens. Maybe I should turn around and return the butterfingers I just bought.

Not 15 minutes later, I find out that my inlaws decided to owe us $175, not having any clue what just went on. A few weeks ago Mike got new tires on his car and…it’s a long story, but they gave us back $175 we had spent. Which covered some of that insurance cost. And all I can do is look at my ceiling with a lump in my throat and think, “When will I ever learn?”

God is not in the business of letting people down.

I just got an e-mail from Lakeland Electric….is anyone else’s electric bill going up like CRAZY?! I mean, I knew it was coming, but sheesh. Double sheesh, even. I think it’s ridiculous. I’m so flabbergasted that I couldn’t spell ridiculous. It took me 3 attempts and a spell check to get it right.

Our economy is so screwed up right now. I’m not just whining about my situation…all of my friends are in the same boat. We have college degrees and full time jobs, but we still can’t afford to support ourselves. It’s just frustrating. Or challenging, I guess. Maybe we are just bad with money and I’m in denial. Maybe I’m just being dramatic.
Anyone else feeling the heat?