A Heartbreaking Tale of Poor Reading Comprehension (stupid, but funny)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m too bemused to actually Pit myself, but I’ll relate the story anyway.

This past Monday, the firm gets an email from the office manager letting us know that our building’s management company will be shutting power down overnight from late Friday evening until about 2am Saturday morning. This is something that happens from time to time as they do maintenance upgrades or what-not at a time that is least inconvenient to the building’s few tenants.

I am one of three people in the office that is considered to be part of the “tech team,” so whenever any computer or other technical issues arise, I get email about it. When the office manager sent out the message about the power shut down, one of the attorneys immediately fired off email to the tech team complaining about the fact that, after prior power shut downs, certain things haven’t come back up properly. She often works on the weekend, and it’s very problematic for her if she shows up and she’s not able to print or send email or whatever.

So, she gently “suggests” that someone from the tech team show up Saturday morning to make sure things are running the way they should. Our office manager volunteers, but she isn’t really technical – she’s only part of the “team” because she has a hand in everything that goes on around the office. I knew that if there actually was a problem with equipment coming back online, it was either going to be me or our outside IT guy who would handle it.

Now, I live in the San Gabriel Valley, I work in downtown LA, and I have plans this morning (Saturday) out on the westside of LA. If you’re not familiar with the geography, just imagine drawing essentially a straight line down the 10 Freeway from my house to Santa Monica, where I’m going, and downtown LA is very much on the way. Since I’m a morning person anyway, this looks like a no-brainer for me. I briefly explain my plans and why it makes sense for me to be the one to come in and handle the situation. Everyone agrees, I’m a hero, and we’re all happy.

Last night (Friday night), I stayed at work about two and a half hours late to make sure everyone’s computers were completely shut down after they left, just to prevent any power surge issue – never can be too cautious. Jakeline and I then went out to a friend’s house for the evening, had a good time, but got home late and didn’t fall asleep until about 1:30am. Needless to say, I wasn’t all that enthusiastic about needing to get up a short period of time later, but work is pretty good to me, so I’m a loyal employee and I knew I’d get it done.

So I wake up at 5:30 this morning, finally drag myself out of bed at a little after 6, hop in the shower, get dressed, kiss the wife goodbye, and head on down to work. I stride into the office and immediately begin looking for any signs of things not functioning. One thing that always goes wrong after a power outage in the office is that the air conditioner we use in the server closet doesn’t power back on automatically, so imagine my surprise when it was, in fact, already working. Odd. Printers and email all seemed to be humming away happily as well.

Everything in the office is running perfectly. Too perfectly.

As much as I’m now desperately trying to push the idea out of my head, a horrible reality has begun to set in. :eek: I log on to my computer and immediately begin searching through my email records to get details on the power outtage and – yeah, you guessed it – the outtage is scheduled for NEXT Friday. :smack:

So now I’m sitting here at my desk at 8am with the full knowledge that:

  1. I left the comfort of my bed almost three hours sooner than I needed to, sacrificing precious sleep and leaving my wife to a cold and heartless divot beneath the sheets;

  2. I have a couple of hours to twiddle my thumbs doing nothing here in the office before I can go meet friends on the west side;

  3. I’m going to have to suck it up and show up to work AGAIN next Saturday morning, where I previously had zero plans to be anywhere outside of a half-mile radius of home anytime before noon.

  4. I’m going to have to face the ridicule of my wife and my coworkers, all of whom sympathized with me last night about my plight of having to get up so early today.

So, happy Saturday to all of you, and I hope yours has gotten off to a slightly less brain-dead start than mine. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m having chicken & waffles for breakfast soon…well, I don’t even want to think about it. :smiley:

2

Just two words: aw, shit.

I wish I could have chicken and waffles with you!

3

hehehe

i think this is one of those times where you just don’t admit anything to anyone :smiley:

4

Oh, that does suck. The only thing worse than having to get up early and go in to work is doing it on a day you don’t have to. My husband who is extremely averse to mornings probably would have broken down and sobbed at the realization.

5

Um, just in case, you know that Monday is a national holiday? Martin Luther King, Jr. day? Are you off on Monday?

Are you sure?

6

I did something silly once, I showed up for work at the fire station at 4:30 am, two hours early on a Sunday. I thought the expressway was awfully deserted, even for a Sunday.

Damn daylight savings time. I’ve never ever forgotten spring forward and fall back ever again.

7

Well, the people I was meeting were almost 45 minutes late, and it was raining, which put me in fairly foul mood, but chicken and waffles still made up for it. Hey, if you’re ever going to be in the area, let me know…I think chicken and waffles has a Dopefest written all over it!

That would be wise, but unfortunately, I’d spent the day before whining to anyone who would listen about the fact that I’d have to come in, so that ain’t gonna fly. My friends have long memories when it comes to embarrasing me.

I’m fairly certain that if I weren’t a morning person, I’d have thrown a serious temper tantrum. It’s not too late, is it?

You’re not a nice person. :slight_smile: Actually, it wasn’t until yesterday that I found out for sure that I didn’t have to work on Monday (it’s a holiday for us in the firm, but I’d been backed up on work and wasn’t sure I’d be able to dodge coming in). So yes, I plan to be in a much happier place on Monday. :smiley:

Considering how long your shifts run, I’d be pretty pissed about that. There’s a life lesson learned…

8

I feel your pain. I was up way the hell too early this morning because I could hear the trashcan getting blown down the street. I think it was five. It might have been earlier.

And then I couldn’t sleep because it was cold and I got chilled and bah.

Chicken? Waffles? Wow. I’m envious.

9

Probably won’t be out that way until The Sausage Creature graduates from UCLA (two years) or The Highwayman graduates from Loyola Law (four years), but I’ll let ya know!

10

I love crawling back into a warm bed after getting chilled - just puts me right to sleep, with a little grin on my face. Of course, if you get too chilled, you might have to warm yourself up on your little portable heater first like I do. Then it puts me right to sleep with a little grin on my face. :smiley: <—but not that big a grin