We Didn’t Have That on the Bingo Card
When the Year Starts Sideways
I came into the new year with the usual mix of hope and anticipation. Fresh starts. No resolutions, just goals. A quiet confidence, this would be a calm year.
The microwave died on January 3.
Not a spark. Not smoke. I heated leftovers, walked past later, and the clock was dark. Instead, I texted my niece Jennifer and told her to get the 2026 bingo cards out. I was first with an unplanned, expensive disaster.
The same week, my TV died. Her washing machine followed. Then her mother-in-law broke her leg.
By the end of the first week, we were trading updates like a quiet disaster log. Finally, one of us texted it. “Well, that wasn’t on the bingo card.” By then, we were half joking about skipping ahead to 2027 and deciding the day required fudge, not discipline.
The Bingo Card Is Not Denial. It Is Coping.
We keep a running text thread for moments like this. We call it our bingo card. It holds the things we never expected to happen, certainly not all at once, and not this early.
The bingo card is not about minimizing real problems.
Bad things happen. That part is not negotiable. The difference between getting stuck and moving forward is how we respond when they do.
Choosing What You Reach For
For me, one choice was settled thirteen years ago. I do not reach for a drink when life turns chaotic. That option is off the table, not because I am virtuous, but because I know exactly where that road leads.
So I reach for something else.
Sometimes it is a Reese’s peanut cup. Sometimes it is perspective and prayer. Sometimes it is my niece’s number and a text that says, “This wasn’t on the bingo card. You are not going to believe this.” Sometimes it is lowering the bar and deciding that today does not require excellence, just existence.
That is not giving up. That is adjusting. That is acceptance.
Minor Adjustments Are Still Progress
When the microwave died, I briefly spiraled into full replacement mode. My friend Jeremy got my emergency college-dorm-sized microwave out of the attic, and I was back in business. A reminder that boring emergency plans are worth it. When plans unraveled, I stopped pretending the week would unfold neatly and focused on doing the next reasonable thing.
In my career, when things went wrong, and they did, we said the same thing every time. It is not what happened. It is how you recover from what happened and what you learn from it. That turns out to be true in daily life, too.
Disruption Is Not Failure
Life does not care about clean starts. It does not respect January. Things will happen, good and bad, expected and wildly inconvenient.
The problem is not disruption. The problem is believing disruption means you are failing.
The bingo card gives us humor for the moment. We did not see that coming. This is not what we planned. Then comes the only question that matters. Okay. Now what?
Once you name the chaos, you do not have to dramatize it. You do not have to numb it. You do not have to pretend you are handling it better than you are. You acknowledge the square, take a breath, and keep moving.
I challenge you to create your own bingo card for 2026. It will have twists, turns, and surprises. The point is not what lands on the card. It is how you respond when it does.
By the third week of January, most of us are not failing. We are adjusting, coping, and trying to laugh our way through it. The only planning that matters is deciding what you’ll reach for when things go sideways.
Let me know what surprises have landed on your bingo card this year.