Mercury Retrograde

My mom is an astrologer. When I was a kid she created astrological charts for people for extra money. I’ve know my whole life that the reason I’m so stubborn is because I have a Taurus rising, and that my moon in Scorpio means that I can be inflexible when it comes to my ideals, with my ideals coming from my Aquarian sun. My feelings about astrology have always been mixed. I’m naturally skeptical, but it’s sort of fun to think about my character being determined by the cosmos. The idea that I am the way I am because the stars were aligned in the sky a certain way at the moment of my birth is pretty amazing.
Anyway, one of the holdfast truths of any astrologer is that when Mercury goes retrograde shutter your windows and put on your goulashes because things are gonna get stormy. Mercury is the planet that guides communication, and when it goes retrograde (meaning that Earth passes it in orbit, making Mercury appear to be traveling backwards) communication breaks down. During this time you’re not supposed to make any major purchases or sign any contracts. Don’t get married, don’t get divorced. Just wait it out, and give people the benefit of the doubt. Chances are, you misunderstood a perfectly innocent remark or whatever.
I’ve been blaming everything on Mercury these last few weeks. I’ve been having all of these tedious problems getting my property manager to do some simple apartment repairs that were meant to be finished before I move in. I’d call him and think we agreed to have a certain thing done that day and then come home and either find nothing done or something started and abandoned. Let’s just say that my living room furniture was moved into the center of the room and left there until I moved it back four days later, walls unpainted. Ugh. I tried to be real understanding with the dude- he’s a nice guy, my age, got a sweet Canadian wife and besides they live in the apartment next door. But after a month of almost daily conversations and no work completed, I finally tattled to the owners. I felt like a snitch, but come on. I just wanted a toilet paper holder and a coat of paint, you know? Anyway, they were real nice and helpful and stuff is finally getting done.
So that was the major communication problem that Mercury blessed me with, but there have been plenty of minor ones as well. Dumb stuff like, “Oh, I thought you said we would meet at the THEATER!” and “Oh, no. That was a joke. I was trying to…. I was just… It’s a pun, see? Oh, shoot. Nevermind. I’m sorry!”
Mercury should right itself next week, and I think we can all say “Amen.” In the meantime, over-explain everything, and get what you can in writing.