7:01 p.m. - 2004-07-23
Purpose
It started last night, I think. My youngest had started our weekly order to the e-grocery store. After I wrote my post for the night, I continued filling out the order and confirmed it. Apparently it wasn't received. No grocery delivery this morning, even if the screen had indicated a successful transaction. I found out at about 4 pm when my youngest called on my cell phone to ask me to pick up more cat food on the way home. Whatever.
Could be the first glimmer of the Mercury retrograde (apparent backward spin) that officially begins about August 8. When it finally goes direct again in September, the planet will be at about the same degree in the zodiac as it is right now. Not really looking froward to that. Anyway, this morning first thing, I thought I'd run the iron quickly over my favorite blouse just so it would look nice and crisp. The setting for heat was at it's highest and you can guess what that did to the fabric. The sleeve melted - oh yes. Looking at it tonight I might be able to salvage the blouse by removing the sleeves, but first thing in the morning only negative thoughts were being attached to the incident. Chose another outfit that seemed ready to wear then ran out the door so I'd be on time for the bus. Got to the stop only to open my bag and realize that I was missing a key document I needed to take with me when I met with one of the candidate's representatives over my lunch hour. Ran back home and grabbed what I needed. Got back to the bus stop and waited and waited. Finally arrived at the train station at 7:10 - 20 minutes later than usual.
There was a train at the platform. That meant I would just be on time if I caught it. It pulled away just as I reached its doors. Of course. All the time there was this little voice at the back of my mind chanting -"everything happens a certain way for a reason". Right. I walked into work 15 minutes late. I rarely do that and it really upsets me. Our liaison usually arrives between 8 am and 8:30 am. Today she had a conference call to attend with the European group so she was in earlier than usual. Of course - and that little voice is still chanting at the back of my mind.
I popped in to ask my co-worker something about one of our tasks and he told me he had just got off the phone with our supervisor. Of course. The message was would one of us do up the report for next week. I volunteered since it seemed logical - only to be told by my co-worker that I shouldn't make such a big deal about what we do. Well I don't - I just list the different tasks or activities we undertake along with the amount of time required, so that our supervisor and the clients know how we are spending their time and money. I do the reports on my own time so it isn't as though I get paid extra to do a lot more work. It is just a client relations exercise that works well in aiding communication. I called and left my supervisor a voicemail asking him if he wanted me to swing by after the meeting I had with the candidate's agent at lunch so that I could pick up - then deliver - the progress report to our liaison today. No response, but at about 3:30 pm this afternoon my co-worker popped his head around my office door saying he forgot to tell me when I arrived this morning about our supervisor's other message for us that morning. That being that he would be out of the office for the afternoon, and further that he would be available on the weekend while he was in the office. Um ok.
Asked the liaison if she wanted a class of documents relabeled and physically moved. She had changed their place and name in the database yesterday so it seemed a reasonable question. Yes please - if it wouldn't be too much trouble. Well no it's part of the way our type of assignments work. Go into a contract where the client really doesn't know all the steps and decisions they will be asked to make about how their data is kept. Change of plans are inevitable as a result. That task basically shot the morning. Halfway through, I realized when I knelt to pick something up that the seam on the skirt I had on was split much higher than it should be- mid-thigh. Not me, not anymore dear. Found a couple of safety pins in my bag and patched myself up as best I could. I did have regular thread but I couldn't find a needle so that wasn't an option right then dear diary.Arggh.
Left the building at about 5 minutes after noon. The meeting with the candidates' rep was on the other end of downtown. It was warm at noon so walking, while good for me, was also rather uncomfortable as a result. Oh well - nice "scenery" on the way along and I think I see the vestiges of Mr Sun's effects on the skin on my legs now. Anyway, 15 minutes of discussion and I was on my way back to the office. 45 minutes from door to door to door - not bad. Got back and started working on another class of documents after having consulted the scientist, the liaison and my co-worker once more before devising a strategy to meet the issue head on. Found there were a lot fo questions raised as a result so I spent quite a bit of time in the afternoon just talking to our liaison about the protocols she wanted followed. Not a problem - I rarely talk, but that is because I am used to having every action in my day measured and often judged. In a lot of places whatever is done is never enough and never good enough, even though it is way more than the client asked or paid for originally. To be in an office where one is told on a regular basis that they are appreciated and to be allowed to talk for more than five minutes at a time is just a bit more than I can take in. Leaves me feeling off balance and edgy. Strange isn't it?
More normal was walking in to my office in the early afternoon - I'd just walked down to the printer to grab the labels I'd sent there then returned to complete the records they were for - to find that the settings on my cell phone had been changed. Another trip to the printer to pick up some other documents I needed to print subsequent to the first round,demonstrated that the default settings on the "to print" toggle had been changed too. Some of the pages were coming out blank and I had to run the whole document twice before I figured out what was wrong and fixed it. Why did someone do that and who among about the dozen people there would bother. Paranoia again. Peachy. Oh well. It's Friday, I'm not going to stew about it now. I'm just going to let that little voice at the back of my mind chanting "things happen a certain way for a reason" continue on so that the day makes some sort of sense. No point doing otherwise since it would change nothing anyway - right?
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