Wednesday, September 20, 2006

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!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Jill - well hopefully today is a better day for you! I know you don't deal with situations like that too well...haha!
On a brighter note, did you notice that when you were at the mail, that the Posters for the Car Rally are up? Well I saw it last night -the one in the post office says that the Theme is Sports Around the World (??) and then at Marcottes, it just says Sports - so we'll have to get together and brainstorm soon enough. Also, we are to call either Glenna Campbell or Joan Belsher for a start time. We should do this early so we can get a time we want. We will need to figure out what time suits the best - I like it early enough so we're not rushed - so Ricky and I aren't picky.
Can I reflect on anything lastnight - watched America's Next Top Model - really like A.J - fell asleep of course before the ending but Ricky told me that it was Christian who left at the end. Ricky would probably not like me broadcasting the fact that he does watch America's Next Top Model, but hey, that is where we got the name Jayla from. I believe it was from Cycle 3 or 4. He did however watch his Pittsburg Penguins - I believe they won 5-4 against the Flyers, however Malkin was taken away to the hospital in the 2nd period with an "upper body injury".
Anyways hope you have a better day Jill - Survivor tonight!

Anonymous said...

I was expecting a blog on the Senators playing the Leafs last night, but I guess you were writing before the game was over. Chad said that Mike Fisher was going to get punched out last night which didn't happen, but he did get a goal. Now I won't hear the end of it, that the Leafs beat the Sens. At least it doesn't count yet. Sorry to hear you had such a bad day Jill. I know how you get when it's busy, because I get the same way when I'm rushed for month-end and statements. And everybody seems to get stuck in your way. Glad you mentioned Survivor Stacy, I would have forgot to watch it. I keep thining today is Friday.

Jill said...

Yes, PK, just to add to my bad day, the stupid Leafs beat my Sens. However, I've decided to refrain from posting about hockey until things get "serious". (Lord knows I'll rant enough about that in the months to come). And I suggest everyone watch the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy tonight as well as Survivor, 'cause I'll probably re-cap both tomorrow!
Stacy - Car Rally - I think anytime after 11 but before 12:30 would be good. (after that it's too late) I'll check with Sara tonight and then we can decide.

Anonymous said...

hi Guys

Well bad days just must be contagious. Sparks was great Tuesday night... I have 9 girls- most I taught last year, so they are sweet, quiet. GREAT. So I left the meeting thinking, "well at least Sparks will be good this year. School will suck, but Sparks will be good." BUT......Wendy Crawford called me last night and she knows of 2 other girls who want to join, one of them being a brat I taught last year, whose mother is a complete wacko and accuses me of denying her child her asthma pump, along with other nasty things. (some of you may remember this screwed up woman!. So my good outlook on Sparks has quickly went downhill.
School is much better today- I am acting like a bitch and it's working! I am a very cross teacher today and I think they are scared. But I just hope my quiet nice kids are understanding that I'm happy with them.
Daycare also sucked yesterday but at least I wasn't alone...babies all crying at once, biting, babies puking on me...it was delightful.Anyways I am sure you are all sick of my complaining.
Jill- I need right hand golf clubs, I can pick them up from your place Saturday morning on my way home from Aylmer..(going to the girl guide store Saturday morning). Sorry about the sens... all the guys were watching the game and being loud last night. I saw Wade on the news last night.. they were saying good things about him too.
I'm with Jill on car rally time...not too early, not too late.
Sorry I never have any comments about TV guys...I never watch TV during the week really...and this week I honestly haven't had time to.
Stacy- you're not coming to Town Pants?

Anonymous said...

Well Sara - too bad to hear that you didn't have that well of a day either but it's almost the weekend. Glad to hear school is better today. About Townpants, Ricky came home from ball the other night and told me he had a dilemma - we told Connie that we would take Brooke and Abby Saturday night so I had no intentions of really going to Townpants. Ricky came home and said the dilemma was that Graham and Woermke wanted us to go to Townpants - I told him to go ahead. Then he thought maybe we would take the kids Friday night and bring them back after supper on Saturday but then money issue and stuff, he decided we should just stay in. I'll ask him again though. ARe you guys going to Carp Fair this weekend? I didn't realize it was this weekend. Car Rally is good around 11 - 11:30 then, want me to call Glenna??

Anonymous said...

Yep - I think you should call about Car Rally Stacy. I just realized I didn't sign my name on my other comment...but I'm sure everyone will know it's me. Graham told me he was trying to get Ricky to come to Town Pants.
And yes it's Carp Fair which I want to go to on Sunday if it's nice....so I hope Graham isn't really hungover. I don't plan on drinking much. So we should soon plan a time to talk about Car Rally.
Sara

Jill said...

Stacy - Go ahead & call Glenna!
Sara - That really sucks about your sucky day. Join the club. Although at least I didn't get puked on. OH, and sure, you can pick up the clubs Saturday. I think a bunch of us from MVT are going to visit Claire in the hospital in Gatineau on Saturday, so if I'm not home, I'll just leave them in my garage. I'm still going to call you tonight tho, so we can discuss all this stuff that's happening (ie. Town Pants, Car Rally)...

Anonymous said...

Well bad days come in 3's I guess. On my way home from work yesterday afternoon, I was 2nd at the light to turn on to the bridge and this ass wipe in a van jammed the nose of his car between me and the car in front of me. So naturally I gave him the finger and mouthed some bad words... and the ass BLEW ME A KISS then I was ripping! So I was so concentrated on him and his turning into the commuter lane that I didn't notice the lady braking in front of me until I had to slam the breaks and skid into the back of her car... I was shaking so bad I was a human blender... THANK GAWD there was no damage to either of the cars and she was really nice. She was french so I spoke french to her. She said she saw what the other guy did to me and it was so stupid of him. So we did not exchange insurance information, thank gawd, I don't have the new policy paper with me, I keep forgetting it at home. The shaking continued well onto Hwy 148... that has never happened and I hope it doesn't happen again!

Hope this afternoon goes better!

Sharon

Jill said...

Sharon - Holy Geez! Glad there was no damage to the cars! I would've been shaking too. The time I got stopped by the cops, I didn't settle down for a long time. I was rattled. I hope you're having a much better day today!

Anonymous said...

Well Sara - you can tell Graham that Ricky and I will be going to Townpants. We're going to take the kids tomorrow night and bring them back home Saturday after supper sometime. So we'll go and see Townpants for a bit I suppose.
Anyways, talk to ya later

Jill said...

Stacy - I'm going in to Gavan's tomorrow night to pick up tickets for Sara, Graham & I if you want to come with, or if you want me to pick some up for you and the Rickster, too.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jill - I'll let you know about the tickets!