Crap day is finally over

5-27-10

I swore a lot yesterday. Don’t get me wrong. I swear a lot normally, but yesterday I think I swore more than I didn’t. It was a lot.

The best part about yesterday is that it is over.

The day started as busy as I had assumed. I worked feverishly on my cash forecasts all the while putting out mini fires in between. My boss came in and in the same breath he said good morning, he actually asked me for other reports. I quickly reminded him that I was already in the midst of another project he said was top priority, and that in a matter of a couple of hours we would be in a meeting. He quickly apologized and amended his request with the always helpful, “when you get a chance”.

Luckily, I still maintain my title of “Awesome” here, and managed to not only complete my forecasts 4 hours before deadline, but also the new request, along with a couple of other reports requested by other folks in the dept. That’s right. I rule.

The meeting was good, but long. I didn’t get back to my desk until a quarter till noon. There I would find multiple other fires that required Gena dousing. I sat down with my heated food, hoping to dink around online for a few minutes when my phone rang with a co-worker’s voice saying, “I don’t know what the hell this guy is talking about. Can you help?” I agreed to help, not realizing the guy she was referring to was about to be on a conference call with us.

I will say this for the record. I love accents. I love the idea that every country speaks in a unique fashion and that we are all different. That being said, if you plan on using a call center to do your work for you, perhaps teaching them some better English when they will be contact American companies would be useful.

The man who was on the line was clearly from India. He also clearly didn’t know how to think outside the script in front of him. “I would like to be telling you” was the start of EVERY sentence. This was should have been funnier at the time, especially since he sounded like Apu. But his ignorance and inability to think about what he was asking for, coupled with an already long day for me, was exhausting. When I had to tell him his request would not be honored since I didn’t know what he was talking about, it took every ounce of strength to not begin this information with “I would like to be telling you”.

Finally I got him to agree to email me the information he was seeking. It took me 10 minutes to explain to him my email address. Mind you, my email address is just gbrenan. It isn’t like it is complicated. I spelled it out, even used the G for Goat type crap. He was clueless. At this point, I then told him multiquip.com. He asked me to spell it. I lost it. I asked him, “It is spelled just like our company. Don’t you have that information in front of you??” He was clearly confused.

I hung up the phone, grumbling loudly, mocking his accent and stupidity. The dept was amused. My coworker who had put this call on me then comes over and tells me he tried emailing me and that I must have a bum email address and that he told her to have me talk to my IT. Are you fucking kidding me????

This email that I finally got was even less coherent than the phone call. I ended up forwarding this to the management of the customer and bitched them out for having call centers contact us to change their billings. I would like to point out that THIS ISN”T MY CUSTOMER!!! I am simply helping out a colleague. But since I am the resident Awesome person, I can’t complain.

The afternoon finally started to calm down to the point where I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. I was even considering slipping out early, which was great since I was pretty convinced I would be staying late. I packed up my stuff at 2:15. I had shut down my computer, had my purse on my shoulder when my phone rang. It was the boss. Dammit! I had to answer. Next thing I know, I am in a meeting for another 45 minutes, which was my co worker and I helping the boss recap what our morning meeting was about so he could send out an email. Sigh.

Even after I clocked out, I hung out for another 15 minutes, chit chatting with various folks about random things. Some work related, some kid related, some just life. I got out of my office about 3:10.

I pulled up to my house, only to find no parking. Sigh. I had to park down the block. I laughed since really, it was par for the course.

I picked up the boys and we went outside to play. Ken was up front with one of his employees who was picking up Lego, and I was in the kitchen prepping dinner when the blood curdling scream came. The boys had been playing with their tools, which are just tiny versions of real tools, including a pretty real hammer. I had been nervous about said hammer since the day before, but didn’t want to overreact. I should have probably trusted my gut on that.

I ran outside to see Dax screaming, jumping up and down in an angry fit. He was hitting his head with his hands and in tears. Bobby quickly told me he hit Dax in the head with the hammer, but that it was an accident. I believed him. I didn’t even know the full story, but perhaps as a mom I now can tell when he is full of shit or not.

I quickly told Bobby to put the tools away and I checked Dax’s head. The bump was similar to the one he had gotten only a couple weeks ago, and it took me a second to make sure I remembered that that one had in fact already gone away and that this was in fact a new bump. I quickly scooped him up and took him inside. I put him on the counter and placed the uber ice pack on his head. He screamed. He kicked. He thrashed. When Dax gets hurt, he doesn’t just feel pain, he is pissed. I rode it out, knowing that he needed to ice this. By the way, note to any inventors out there. Can someone please invent the kid ice helmet? That would be super helpful.

He calmed down enough to eat a lollipop while I continued to ice down the area. Ken went out and asked Bobby what had took place. Turned out, Bobby was up on the playhouse, and had the hammer. He accidently dropped it and it landed on Dax’s head, who was under the house. He ended up getting not one, but two bumps from this. We found the second bump later.

I gave him the Tylenol and Mickey Mouse treatment. He was way more willing to lie down on the ice pack, so this was cool, no pun intended. We of course watched for any signs of bad. Thankfully, he was up, dancing around pretty quickly.

I knew it was time to throw in the towel since now my crap day was hurting my kids. LOL!

We went and got some ice cream and ended the day on a few tantrums, but it was all ok. We turned in early, after watching House, which made me laugh since it was Laura Prepon playing a blogger. I so felt like I was watching me if I got really bad. LOL!!

I crashed out pretty hard pretty quickly, so this is a good thing. I had so much on my brain I was sure it would take me some time to shut down, but thankfully I was able to turn it all off and get some sleep.

I am thinking I have work to do today, but I don’t want to start any new stuff since I will be gone. So today I will just clear up any lose ends and I think I may slip out at noon.

Ken doesn’t have classes today, so he is thinking of doing a Daddy and Dax day, which is awesome. I told him he should take Dax to Disneyland, so this is a possibility. The only think that may prevent this is if Maria is having a party for Bobby. This is Bobby’s last day at Maria’s. WOO HOO!!! Maria might end up having a party. I doubt it, but you never know. That being said, if she is doing anything like that, Dax should be there. So we will see. Ken is going to ask her this morning. Honestly, if she is having a party, I may need to slip out even earlier.