Jillian and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Once upon a time, there was a girl who had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

OK, so maybe it wasn't that bad, but I definitely wouldn't classify it as my best day ever.

Most of you know that I work in the office at Mountainview. My primary job involves invoicing, payables, tracking inventory, and payroll. When needed, I take phone calls for sod orders, but most of the time, our "receptionist" (but she's oh-so-much-more than that), Claire, takes the orders. However, Claire has been away since last Friday, as she has had surgery and she will be away for at least the rest of this week and all of next week. On top of this, Sue, who is Vice-President and Office Manager at Mountainview, was also away at our sister company, Gemma, today. That left little ol' me, all alone to answer the phones and keep the office running smoothly. To be fair, both Jared and Bill were around all day, and they helped a lot by answering phones and taking orders, but it still was a bit of a zoo, and I don't exactly excel in such an atmosphere. In fact, I get flustered and bitchy, which isn't a good thing.

My day started off rather rotten when our Ontario customer rep, Todd, called to get some pricing for one of his clients, and in our discussion, he discovered I've been charging that client - a very large, prestigious golf course - the wrong price for fertilizer all year long. When I pulled out the quotation for the client, I realized that I had missed the fine print at the bottom of the page stating that they would receive a 5% discount for their early booking last fall. And this happens to be a golf course that has approximately 40,000 invoices over the past 6 months. I was so frustrated that I could've cried. Jared, sensing my anxiety and impending bitchiness, suggested I go for the mail to clear my head and take a break.

I love going for the mail. For twenty minutes, I get to leave the buzz of the office - which is generally fun and energizing, but sometimes can be a bit much - to drive to Quyon in my Rav, listen to whatever CD I happen to be infatuated with on that particular day, cruise through town, stopping at the post office and usually Marcotte's store to pick up a treat for the office staff. I definitely needed this excursion today. But I knew it was not my day when I strolled into the post office with two packages to mail, and discovered it was not good, old reliable Grace working, but rather the French lady who never understands what I want her to do and takes half an hour aggravating me with her ditziness. ARRRGGGHHHH.....

Almost a full half hour later, she finally got it right. I escaped out to my car, skipped Marcotte's because I'd already been gone for so long, rushed back to work, and immediately jumped back into the frey. I helped Jared and Bill take orders, tried to run the cheques for payables, and fielded ridiculous phone calls from Todd ("Uh, hi Jill...Uhhh...I don't remember what I called you for." ... "Hey Jill, is Pat there? No? Oh, guess I'll try him on his radio." ... "Ya, Jill? Do you remember the part number for that thing I ordered for that golf course three months ago?"...Typical Todd.) The afternoon was sprinkled with people calling to find out what time they would get their sod at tomorrow, cheques getting jammed in my printer, Bill asking me questions I couldn't answer because I'm not Claire, no matter how hard I try to be, and paper cuts. Lots and lots of paper cuts.

Alright, so maybe I'm hyperventilating over nothing. Maybe I should just relax and look at the positives: I'm still alive, nothing happened that cannot be fixed, and tomorrow Sue will be back and things won't be quite so hectic. I guess it could've been worse. Todd could've come to visit.

So maybe I should have just started off by saying, "Once upon a time there was a girl who had a not-so-good day". Ah, well. Tomorrow's a brand new day.

Take care, everyone!