1) Sitting in my car in a parking lot. A crazed 50-ish lady slams her car door into mine, then drives off without acknowledging it whatsoever. I sat, astonished, mouth gaping wide open like a paralyzed idiot, cowardly watching her drive off without confronting her in my freshly dented and scratched car.
2) I went into a customer's office--my budgeted amount of time to support them with their purchase was about 20 hours. They are quite needy and I've already devoted over 100 hours, with no end in sight. One thing went wrong, completely beyond my control and the fault of one of my colleagues, and the customer became highly critical of me, including threatening to return their whole order for a complete refund. I had to stand and take accountability for the problem, though I have no control over it or means to fix it--very frustrating.
3) Speaking to one of my colleagues, discovered that his brains are as thick as pig shit. So obtuse as to be non-communicative. Great.
4) I'm working on a huge order. My boss called and verbally gave me a price on one custom component and details, which I conveyed to the customer in writing. The next day (yesterday), my boss called and said that the price we were going to charge is now actually three times the original price (arbitrarily, and not related to the actually cost of manufacturing the thing), which makes a significant difference in the total price of the system. He asked me to apologize to the customer and tell them the real price. I'm being made to look like an idiot.
5) Then I'm told that I left the cover sheet off my TPS report...seriously, something to that extent. I reply--if that's priority #1, can somebody put that in writing? Because it seems quite minor in light of the other 300 projects I have going, and actually does nothing except tell you the status of all the things I'm working on. Is it more important that I stop what I'm doing to tell you the status than to complete the thing itself? Apparently so. This opened up a black hole in my head which sucked out any desire to put any extra work in for the next month.
6) Came home and was telling Fran about the craziness of the day. I was actually quite relieved to be home and looked forward to relaxing with the family. Got home, and it was a child's war zone with Ryan's 6-year old friend bouncing a basketball off our chandelier...
7) Dinner scene:
M: Wow-I'm glad today's almost over
(Ryan gets up from the table and leaves).
M (agitated, but not yelling) : Ryan, I'm sorry but you aren't excused from the table yet.
F: Don't snap at him just because you've had a bad day! Don't take it out on him!
M: It doesn't have anything to do with it at all.
R: You're just being mean, Daddy!
M: Ryan, come to the table--you were only sitting down for four minutes! I want to hear what happened at school.
F: You're just in a bad mood!
Me: No, I'm really not. I promise. Besides, it doesn't have anything to do with him leaving the table without being excused.
F: Who cares? I'm not going to let you take it out on him...
Me: Stop contradicting me in front of Ryan! You're sending him a mixed message.
F: Ryan, come to the table.
But, of course, it wasn't over, so I had to get out and get some fresh air for a few minutes. I looked up, and sure enough, it was a full moon.
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