Saturday, April 10, 2010

Enough of Stating the Obvious

The obvious in this situation is that I have been absolutely awful at keeping up with my blog. People have been blaming it on a whole slew of issues - none of which can be attributed any longer to Lyme's Disease because I apparently never had that to begin with. Doctors are such a waste of time - clearly. But rather than focus on why I have been the worst blogger in the world, I would like to shed some light on one of my bigger pet peeves in life.

And so the story goes....(brace yourselves)

As it turns out - yesterday was one of my less enjoyable Fridays at work. It was supposed to go very smoothly - get into work - the printer was bringing in a proof that I would bring to my client - get approved and be on my merry way down to my very first press check. Awesome. Unfortunately - that's not at all how it turned out.

On my way in I get an email from the printer saying there is a huge problem with the one file that was uploaded the night before and they can't make the changes that need to be made. Needless to say - now I don't have my proof in the morning and instead - I'm working with someone to make the changes so that I can leave. There's just one HUGE problem - no one can come with me and I have ZERO production experience. Not the best case scenario when you're talking about a $25K printing job. And what is the last thing I want to hear in this situation? 'Wow...that really sucks. Press checks are the worst. Sounds like you're going to have a real shitty day. Oh man." Unbelievable. Why do people say things like this? Blows my mind every time.

So now I'm just livid but I have to leave anyway - get on the road and immediately sit in stand still traffic for hours. Only to get down to Pennsauken and have NO IDEA where the road I need is. None. I stop at three different locations for directions. Turns out no one in Pennsauken knows anything at all - including where the road I need is located. First guy's response - (insert awkward head nod due to the fact that he speaks zero English). Second guy's response - incoherent directions that sounded something like this: 'You go down this road about a mile and a half...and then the road kinda does a little something - you want to not go right, but not go left...just kinda stay right there and you'll see it. Okay buddy. Thanks for sounding dumber than idiot #1. And then comes the third guy - who I had to ask to spell out the street name he was directing me too because he had no teeth and I couldn't understand a word he was saying. Super.

Now I'm at my wits end and somewhere around 3 hours late. I hate being late. I finally get to the place and they have a nice little name tag for me. It reads: Erin Bijar. Wow. Icing on the cake. At this point, I could care less about pretty much anything - this day is just a disaster and that's the end of that story.

Boy was I wrong. So imagine it's 1230 on a Friday and you're at a printer at a press check (hard to imagine I'm sure but just pretend) and everyone keeps hinting at the fact that it's going to be a long night. So I finally ask how long are we going to be here and my rep tells me UNTIL MIDNIGHT! I'm like - are you serious?

To make a long story short - I wasn't there until midnight - but 8PM - which was still awful. At least the piece looks nice otherwise I don't know what I would have done.

And there you have it. If someone you know is having an absolutely awful day - please do not remind him/her that the day is going to be just horrendous. Last thing they want to hear. Instead - try to be helpful or don't say anything at all. That's probably best.

Enjoy the weekend! And I'll try to be better about writing. I do miss it.