Have you ever had an hour or a day or a week when you need to do too many things?  When you should work with multiple lists to remind you of tasks to be done?  But because you’re too stressed to make the lists you muddle along doing the best you can?  Sometimes things don’t turn out so well.

You know what jello is, right?  That wiggly insanely colored not food thing.  I was supposed to make it last night before I went to bed.  I promised to make it last night before I went to bed.  But I went to bed without thinking about jello.  The neon food never entered my mind.

Even this morning as I was getting ready for work I didn’t think about my promise.  Until I pulled the cereal box out of the pantry.  And there it was.  The little box staring accusingly up at me.  The box of jello dust.  Waiting for the boiling water.  Waiting for me to fulfill the promise.

I put breakfast on hold and set the kettle on the stove.  Water takes a long time to boil when you’re in a hurry but I didn’t use that time to read the directions.  That would have entailed finding my glasses, and after all this was jello.  Who needs directions?

So I boiled the water, poured out one cup of the steaming liquid and stirred it into the jello fixings until it was clear.  I knew that the little box made four servings, so I poured it into four little custard cups, each cup not even half full.  Hmmmm, I thought.  That’s odd.  I remember the servings being bigger than this when I was a kid.  But when was the last time I actually made jello and poured it into little cups?  So I put them in the refrigerator and set about making my breakfast.

But something kept nudging my brain.  How is it that a small box of jello is supposed to make four 1/2 cup servings and what I had looked like so much less?  How come.  How come.

WAIT!  Where was that box?  Where were my glasses?

The directions say one cup of boiling water….and one cup of COLD water!  AHHHHHH  I could double my output if I followed the directions!  Isn’t that just like life.

I grabbed the four pathetic custard cups of jello out of the fridge, poured them back into the bowl, added the cold water, stirred.   And I laughed quietly, assuring myself that I’d never tell anyone about my failed jello project.  But I’m telling you.

Keep it under your hat, OK?