breathing

I'm taking a moment's break in the midst of chaos in which to collect myself before moving on to more of this week's insanity. It's one of those moments where I pause to wonder... could it really get worse from here? Surely at this point things can only start going up!

This has been the week from down under in regard to work, and a large program that I'm working on the last minute organization for before it kicks off (ready or not) on Monday at 6:30am. Since one of my beloved coworkers (and dearest friends) departed our hallowed halls last month in search of a job on the side of the Metropolis closer to her hubby, I have been given the arduous task of temporarily filling her shoes (on top of what I'm already doing here) until they hire a replacement for her. This in itself would be a great source of stress in the life of one already overwhelmingly busy. However, add to it the many things that have gone very, very wrong this week, and you have what I now am: stressed out and seriously considering walking out the door and not returning until next Tuesday - and then sticking my fingers in my ears and running away, screaming, every time anyone mentions the said program that is to begin on Monday. Childish? Yes. Effective? Possibly.

Things that have gone wrong this week:

• Monday - I discovered that the two boxes of 45 workbooks (each) that are supposed to be in our closet over at the church had gone missing.
• Tuesday - boxes were still missing, so I tore apart every single closet at the church searching, and, after turning up nothing in my 2 hour search, half-yelled, half-cried at the facilities director that if they weren't found by my 2pm meeting with my temp boss that I was going to get fired (which was not true, although it may have felt true). After this episode, I promptly discovered that the box of brochures (which was supposed to have arrived last Thursday), had still not been delivered. I then stormed off to my office where I called, for the third time in 2 days, the place that was supposed to deliver them and told them that if they couldn't deliver them by 1pm, I would come pick them up myself. They assured me that they could (and they did!). After I hung up the phone with them, I received a call from the facilites director that they had found the boxes - in a back storage building stuffed under about 20 other boxes. I resisted the urge to personally find and beat up the staff person who had asked that they be moved, and 1 1/2 hours later entered my meeting with temp boss - calm, cool, collected, as if everything was running smoothly.
• Wednesday - Things were running smoothly, despite the 4 hours of meetings I sat through all afternoon. Then I lost my keys in the church building - the security guard found them. After that, I scheduled temp boss a meeting with a man named Bud Felker... but in telling him about it I mixed up my "u" and my "el" and wound up saying his name as... well... you can figure that one out. It was humiliating.
• Thursday (today) - I sat down this morning to email the power point presentation, which was supposed to have been completed and left for me, to our A/V guys for setup, and discovered that the file would not open. After leaving that project with the already overloaded IT guy, I left to pick up the banners that were supposed to be hung today from the banner making place. Picked them up, took them to our facilities director, and promptly discovered that they were done WRONG. Mind you, these have to be hung in time for Monday morning. Since I had a lunch meeting that started while we were discovering this, the facilities director kindly offered to take them back to be redone after I gave him a desperate and pitiful look. Promptly after my lunch meeting, I picked up the box of brochures (same box that I was waiting for on Tuesday), filled the info racks, and walked out the church door only to step off the first concrete step and fall down the next 4, somehow managing to keep from spilling the contents of my box.

So that's where I am now, sitting at my computer taking a breather from the chaos... my toushy and back throbbing with the impact of concrete steps, trying to get that document to open so that I can save the presentation for Monday.

I need a margarita and a hot bubble bath when I get home.