dripping and reconciling

this is gross but it is the truth. the credit statement i just reconciled is spotted with drippings from my...nosie. what can i do. one hand holding the clip board, the other is either holding a pencil or typing numbers. those waters of grace are too unpredictable for me to grab a tissue. anyhow, anyhoo, this credit statement took an entire day. i started it, i don't remember the exact date, before hwubby went to new york. it covers the holiday season. it has 145 transactions, most of them without receipts and a bunch of them hwubby have trouble recognizing and remembering them. so we agree on the phone we'll finish it when he returns from new york. and then the ensuing months he has been in hospital, rehab and so on and so forth. so when i pick this baby up it looks like an alien. after going through it line by line three times i'm still two dollars short. i stare at the crosses, marks, folds and tiny numbers. i sigh and start all over again. about ten transactions into it i get it. one of the no-receipt transactions should be eight dollars, not six as i tried hard to read it with a deep, frayed fold running across it. but by then it's too late. i have already erased all the checked marks. so i take a deep breath, remind myself i resolve this year to cultivate patience. what has to be done has to be done. i keep going. and i do it. yay.