the results of one small action

so today . . . i had a major moment of panic. my jaw dropped. my heart went BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM in my chest. i got hot. my brain started flashing nononoNoNoNoNONOOOOO! i was paralyzed. that fight or flight response you learned about in psych 101? i was definitely in flight mode . . .

you see, i accidentally bought the white farmhouse.

i have been farming on facebook for a while now. and after the second time that i increased the size of my farm, i've had my eye on that perfect white farmhouse. i don't want a barn (60,000 coins) or a silo (30,000 coins) or even the small brown farmhouse which can be had for a mere 70,000 coins. i want the beautiful white farmhouse with the porch and yellow flowers all around it. when i reached the level in the game that made it possible for me to buy the farmhouse, i learned that it was going to cost me 300,000 coins. at the time, i had about 90,000 coins.

so, how to get the farmhouse, before all my animals die of old age . . .

i squished my crops closer together so i could plant more, which would result in bigger payoffs at harvest time. i haunted the marketplace, hoping strangers would hire me to come harvest their crops. i watched as my farming friends added windmills and white fencing and pathways and hay bales to their farms, adding personality and making them very inviting. but still i left my farm plain, crammed with crops. i planted crops that would mature in only one day to maximize my point total so that i could continue to level up and increase my property. every time i increased my farm size, it cost me--20,000 coins, then 25,000 coins, then 30,000 . . . i kept thinking that maybe i should be saving that money for my house, but i knew that by increasing my land, and therefore the amount of my crops, in just a few days i would be showing even larger profits.

my bank account grew. i kept recalculating how much i thought i needed before i bought the house. i needed more than the 300,000 for the house, because i still needed money to plow and plant my farm. my total hit 250,000 coins, and i started thinking that the house was going to become a reality (virtually speaking, of course.) i decided i needed at least 450,000 coins, and 500,000 would be even better, before i took the plunge. my farm is big enough now that it costs me about 100,000 coins to plow and plant after every harvest, and i don't want to be left without resources--even electronic ones. so by my calculations, i should be able to afford the house by this weekend, and i have big plans . . .

this morning, i saw that my bank account was now at 425,000 coins! i was so excited! so when my kindergarteners and i were finished working on their farm plots, i started talking about my plans. we were huddled around my tiny computer, and i went to the store to show them the beautiful house. they were very interested, not just in the house but also in the other buildings available for purchase. they wanted to know what a silo was for and why i didn't want to get a barn. they wanted to know what the windmill would do.

and then it happened.

joshua clicked the mouse.

it was positioned over the farmhouse of my dreams. and suddenly we were at my farm, and so was the house.

i couldn't breathe. i couldn't think. i wasn't ready for this. not yet. i needed more in my bank account. how would i plow and plant crops? would i have this huge farm with a lovely house and only three crops? what would i do with my evenings now if i couldn't afford to farm? it could take weeks to recover from this one tiny act. click. and suddenly everything had changed.

the boys looked at my panic-stricken face. joshua immediately said "sorry," and i have no doubt that he really, really meant it. i'm frantically trying to figure out how to cope with this surprising turn of events. ok, i think, it isn't that bad. at least it is something i wanted and not the small brown house which would be totally useless to me. and a blight on my landscape. ok, i think, this is salvageable. i'll just have to plow and plant each square at the same time so that i don't end up with empty plowed fields and not have enough money to plant. ok, i think, it will be ok.

so i start looking for a place to put the house. it is pretty big, and as i said, my crops are all squished together. there just isn't any space for it! well maybe i can put it on top of some of my crops, even if it kills them. but the house won't stay if the ground isn't clear. now i am starting to worry that i have lost my money and if i can't get the house to stay, i will lose it as well. i keep moving it around, looking for an answer. i decide to text diandra and ask her to come harvest joshua's strawberries. it is the only crop ready for harvest, and if she does that then maybe the house will sit in that spot. and then i glance up at my bank account.

and guess what? it still says 425,000 coins. huh? and then i remember that when you buy seeds from the store, it doesn't actually charge you for them until you use them. is it possible that it will be the same with the other items for sale? i decide to try to "return" the house. i don't really have a lot of options, because there is no room for it yet. so i go to the toolbar, click on another random icon, and the house disappears.

it disappears, and the money is still in my account. my breathing becomes more normal. my posture relaxes. i smile, and joshua relaxes.

crisis averted. blood pressure back to normal. lesson learned (don't click the mouse until ms. julie says it's ok.) original plan back in effect.

the earth is back on it's axis and all is right in farm town . . .