No Need to Get the Police Involved!

This week I discovered that the reason my tire kept losing air was because I had run over a nail somewhere on the road. Unfortunately, the tire place couldn't get me a new tire that day because they didn't have our tire of choice in stock...we only use Michelin (shameless unpaid product placement).  So they put on the spare and I drove carefully on the sad ugly spare tire for the next 24 hours. After they got the new tire on the next day, they had some problems getting the spare back in place. The technician came in and told me, "Sorry, we can't get your spare back on."  My first thought was "That's ok."   But then I thought, if they can't get it on, how am I supposed to get it back up?  So I looked at him and said, "Well, it needs to be put back like you found it yesterday when you got the spare out."  He mumbled something about talking to his manager. Then I watched a new team of guys try unsuccessfully to put my spare back. So the manager comes to me about 30 minutes later and informs me that the wench to lift the tire is binding and it needs to be replaced and the part will cost blah blah blah. I just looked at him. Then he said, "I have to talk to the main manager and I'll see what we can do for you, but he won't be back until Thursday."

Why am I boring you with this story? BECAUSE I FOUND MY VOICE!  I left there feeling proud. VERY proud!  I thought for one tiny little second about saying, "Oh, that's ok." or "No problem." like I've done a million times in my life, when it's NOT ok and it IS a problem!  I was assertive (NOT AGGRESSIVE... remember my blog about almost getting arrested? 😳)  I told my hubby and he was pretty mad at the tire place and asked if he needed to take care of it.  I told him that I would take care of it. But 20 years of seeing me be passive and not speaking up has us in a pattern where he has to take care of this kind of stuff. He kept bringing it up the next couple days and told me to remind them that they better fix it for me or they won't like having to deal with him!  But I didn't use that threat. I just followed up and kept using my voice.  The tire place made arrangements and this Monday morning it will get fixed!

Does this mean I'll always be able to stand up and speak my mind, wants, needs, and/or feelings?  Probably not. But when I don't, and I realize I didn't but I should have, I'm not going to beat myself up. I'm going to think about why I did what I did. I'm going to think about how I might have handled the situation differently. I'm going to recommit to using my voice.  See!  No need to get the police involved!