The Adventures Of Jon And The Very Long Day

So I put in my one day of work today.
And what a day.
First off, Scott was out because he’s taking a Perl training class this week. He’d thought it was only Tuesday and Wednesday, so he was surprised on Tuesday when he found out that it was Tuesday-Friday.
(The Tuesday-Wednesday class is next week, and he and I are taking it together. It’s an intro to Flash.)
Simon showed up – and as close to on-time as seems to be possible for him – but he brought with him a case of Pink Eye, which, in an environment of shared resources (keyboards, phones, stripper poles, etc.) is not a welcome guest, so our boss sent him home.
That would have left just me to man every station, but fortunately we have a system that automatically e-mails people to let them know about OT slots when someone is going to be off (assuming the manager enters it into the calendar correctly, which our boss did), to which someone had responded, so I had some help.
He’ll also be in tomorrow, which is good, because if Simon is still out that means that no one from our shift will actually be there.
Of course, I’m letting the fact that this isn’t my problem be one of my birthday presents and am not worrying about it.
(As an aside, Brian called to ask if Scott is going to be in tomorrow. I said no, and as it dawned on him that he might very well be the one who has to help fill in for us, he said a lot of swear words that I won’t repeat, although I will say that one of them rhymed with gun of a witch and sounded exactly like son of a bitch.)
Even so, it proved to be an irritating day full of minor annoyances and various weird shit that made things even more annoying.
And it was long.
It didn’t help matters any that I didn’t get to eat lunch until almost 2.
Still, once it was over I drove out of there like a bat out of hell, and when I got to the last major intersection I got an early birthday present from the Universe in the form of actually hitting it when the arrow was green. In over a year of taking that route home that’s only happened one other time. Pretty much every other time I get there just after the arrow turned off and have to sit through a full cycle of those long-ass lights.
And then I was home where I eventually settled in to watch – and laugh at – new episodes of My Name is Earl and The Office.
Kathleen called (immediately after which Brian called to have the aforementioned conversation) to plan for a “birthday breakfast” tomorrow, as it would be too much of a hassle for her to go to work, come back to Leesburg for lunch, and then drive back to work.
So as a birthday present I get to wake up early on my day off! Hooray!
Honestly, though, it will be nice to see Kathleen, as I haven’t since back in December when she burst in to my place in a flurry of activity, leaving behind a living thing (the fish) in her wake.
On Saturday Scott and Stacy are taking me out for dinner because, as Stacy said, I’m a “good guy.” When I grunted, she said, “Well, we like you,” to which I responded, “Well, I suppose there’s no accounting for taste.”
Stacy had IMed me at work today to apologize for not de-hairing the couch on Sunday. I told her that it wasn’t a big deal, but she insisted it was, so I told her that I forgave her.
Joke’s on her; I didn’t forgive shit!
(Mostly because I didn’t feel there was anything to be forgiven, to paraphrase Andy – I mean Drew – from tonight’s Office.)
Anyway, now I’m here writing this.
And you’re there, reading it.