Jaci Dawn

Today started out pretty nice: I got to sleep in half an hour because I had an orthodontist appointment. After the appointment, I went on in to work.

I thought work would be a piece of cake because I got a head start on today’s work yesterday. And the first two hours of work today left me with that false impression.

Then came one o’clock. My day went downhill rapidly. You ever have “one of those days”? Well, this was two of them rolled into one. I’m thankful I have a CFO with a sense of humor and a boss with a sense of humor because today was one of those “I think I’ll just cry and go home. Or go home and cry. Or cry and go home and cry.”

A little background: I am in charge of printing the checks that pay real estate agents. It is a daily job and one that has to be done on a deadline: I have to be finished before the mail run.

We have a new printer and I’ve had a bit of a learning curve with the new printer. That means I’ve had to void and reprint a couple batches of checks through my own error. Yesterday I had to void and reprint a batch of checks because someone else sent a print job through while I was running checks. It wasn’t anyone’s fault: they had their door closed & didn’t know I was printing checks and we (my boss & I) assumed they wouldn’t print. Wrong.

Today I had something I needed to print before I  tried printing checks (this is probably a good thing because that was how I discovered the new printer was no longer connected to the internet. My computer couldn’t communicate with the printer. I sent out an SOS to out IT people but all I got was the standard reply email that my call would be handled in the order it came in.

Um, NO – my call needs to go to the TOP of the list, people. Paying people has a little bit of priority. So I resent my call out with more information and a deadline on it. Hello? I HAVE TO PRINT CHECKS. No answer.

My first deadline passed. We put in a personal call to one of the IT guys (we aren’t supposed to do that) and he hurried over to fix it for us. He was ticked (not at us) that the first message had not been handled as a priority message and I foresee there will be changes in that.

But that wasn’t the end of my problems. Now I was closing in on my second deadline and I grabbed a new box of checks. Printed away. On the wrong number sequence. UGH. I had to void and reprint 20 checks. By the time I was just getting around to the reprint, my last deadline passed.

We made the mail courier wait while I reprinted checks. After all, there were real estate agents who were waiting to be paid! I think one was waiting at the front counter…

I’m fortunate that we all made jokes about my bad luck. I told my boss and the CFO that I was done for the day and I was going home. They laughed and said good luck with that. As much as I wanted to curl up and cry, they made me laugh. Who else could this happen to? At least I know how to void checks real well now. I’m getting in a lot of practice at it.

I left at 4:45 to make the deposit and head home. As I left I told my boss that I was going to drink the bottle of wine my orthodontist gave me ALL BY MYSELF tonight. I figured I deserved it after my day. (I won’t, don’t worry. Probably won’t even touch it until the weekend.)

Oh. You’re probably wondering WHY my orthodontist would give me a bottle of wine. Well, to celebrate with, of course.

So the day wasn’t a total loss.

ttfn!