Today = Suckage
Okay, I could write up a long rant about all the stuff that went wrong today, but instead I’ll just list it all. Seems like more fun at the moment…
Stuff that went wrong today:
- I missed Christine’s call to my cell on my drive in because I had the radio turned up too loud (and was singing along.) I found her voice mail as I was walking into the office.
- Alec (in White Plains) said DoubleClick was slow and Christine was kind of in panic mode. (I wasn’t. They’re ALWAYS saying DoubleClick is slow and it’s always because someone’s running huge reports.)
- I snuck out to Saturn of Natick (30 minutes away) at 11:00. At 11:45, Christine calls my cell to ask where I am. She’s still in panic mode, but I assure her that I talked to Alec and he said everything was back to normal. (I’ll have to remind Alec not to make his slowness reports not seem so end-of-the-world-ish.)
- At Noon, the service guys come out to tell me my transmission is fubar’d. (The same transmission I had fixed just over a year ago.) It would take 4 to 5 hours for them to rip it out and look inside. (…and I know from last time that that’s at least $400 labor.) They say it may be a $1200 to $2000 job. Ouch!
- Saturn of Natick is out of loaner cars. They expected a couple back, but they weren’t in. One was a day late. Bastard late people! I’m trapped! …so I call up Christine, but her husband has her car. I call Mark and he comes down to Natick to pick me up. (It’s a 30 minute drive.) I buy him lunch in return.
- Just as I walk in the main lobby of the building, Christine calls wondering why I’m not back yet. (If she had only waited another five minutes. It would have been funny to be standing behind her.) I was gone a total of 2 hours and 42 minutes.
- A little over an hour later, it’s time for a company meeting for them to talk about how everything’s crappy, they laid off people, but splitting the company (TMP Worldwide) in two (into a profitable Monster half and a second other-crap-we-don’t-want half) will benefit us since we won’t have corporate expenses from the other half dragging us down. Sounds good to me…as long as they don’t decide to lay me off in the process. (I feel relatively secure at the moment. Then again, I thought I was pretty secure at ExpertCentral.)
- At 4:30, the dealership calls and explains that the transmission damage is pretty severe (but could have been a lot worse if I had driven the car much more.) $1,435 estimate. Crap. I don’t have that kind of money…and I was trying to pay off my Visa. Dammit. The guy says they have a loaner and I can pick it up before 7:30.
- I head out to Natick with Mark and it’s raining.
- As I walk in, I realize I don’t have my keys…any of my keys. Since they have stuff under my car supporting the engine, the guy has to take a ladder and climb up in to get them…or else I can’t get into the house.
- Traffic sucked. I hate the Mass Pike in the rain during rush hour. At least I was eastbound, against most traffic.
- I get home and call up Christine and Susie to have a conference call with someone in Australia and see what problems they’re having with DoubleClick. The problem? Her boss told her not to use it! We had no idea. Well, I guess our boss will have to talk to her boss and set her straight. …’cause I’m sure as hell not gonna be up at 3am to make emergency ad changes when Australia needs them.
Stuff that went right today:
- I managed to get up and in to the office at a reasonable hour.
- Mark and I had lunch at Panera. It was yummy.
- Christine let me leave early at 4:45 with Mark (who was going back to Natick anyway for his “spinning” exercise.)
- I got to see my mangled transmission parts. Kinda nifty. I messed them up good!
- My loaner car has heated seats.
I feel bad for only being at my desk for under three hours today (and HAD offered to return to the office for the call instead of heading home), but whatever. I’m home now. I’ll catch up on stuff tomorrow. It’s not like I’m overloaded.
Hmmm…now where can I find an extra $1500…