I had a bad day

Yep, I had a pretty bad day.  It started out with me having to do, pretty much, the thing I hate about my job the most.  I had to stop at a shop and pick up food because my boss scheduled a meeting inside the two week window that on-site catering is available.  I know this doesn't sound like a very difficult thing to do, so I'll tell you the rub.  No matter where I go to pick up food for a meeting, whether it be for breakfast or lunch or a snack, it never turns out well.  So, what happened on this day, you may ask.  I ordered catering from Panera Bread.  I know, you're all saying yummy, yummy.  Yeah, I know, Panera is yummy.  Here's the thing, when you order food for take-out, you never know what you're going to get.  I ordered something they call a 13 pack and two jugs of coffee.  The coffee was supposed to serve 8 cups per each jug.  This would equal about 16 cups, right?  This is what I thought.  So, I have coffee for 16 cups and 13 bagels with two small tubs of cream cheese.  Easy peasy.

Not so fast.

The first thing I discover when picking up the food is that they give me the bagels in a bag and not on a tray.  Evidently, you have to order your bagels on a tray if you want them on a tray.  And, they add $2.50 + tax for the tray.  Thank you.  I need a tray.  Secondly, they don't give you plates with your catering.  You have to specifically ask for plates.  Thankfully, I asked for plates when I ordered the food, so I didn't have to pay extra for the plates when I pointed out that I needed them and they weren't in the bag.  Also, remember the bagels.  Well, you must have to ask to have the bagels sliced in advance, because the bagels I got where not sliced.  And finally, even though you've ordered bagels and cream cheese for 13 people, they must think all 13 people are GREAT friends.  They gave me four plastic knives.  Four.  Four plastic knives for service for 13 people.  This is not good.  I scrambled around the building and found three more plastic knives.  Evidently, plastic knives are the holy grail of plastic cutlery.  By the way, Panera gave me enough sugar to give the biggest sugar addict enough sugar for an entire year.  TONS of sugar, four plastic knives.  AND, they didn't slice the bagels.  I guess I kind of get this, no slicing of the bagels thing.  Maybe they thought I wasn't going to eat them right away.  However, I did say I wanted these for a catered breakfast meeting.  I guess I didn't put the dots close enough together.  Oh well.

But this wasn't the worst thing about my day.  By a long shot.

As I drove down to the college for the breakfast meeting, I had an uneasy feeling.  Scheduling this meeting was challenging.  For some reason, every time I sent an email with the meeting information, the recipients would ask me questions like, "what time is this meeting?"  Even though it was on the email.  Or they would ask, "what sub-group meeting is this?"  Even though it was on the subject line.  They even asked, "what day is this meeting?"  Even though I said, in the email, it was tomorrow.  Odd.  Weird.  But, wait for it...........  wait for it..........
I invited the wrong people to the meeting.  None of the people I invited were in the sub-group the meeting was supposed to be about.  None.  I invited the wrong sub-group to the wrong sub-group meeting.  When my boss returned from the meeting he says to me, "something went wrong.  didn't it?"  I said, "yeah."  Sure, as soon as he said something was wrong, everything made sense.  These people didn't know what meeting I was inviting them to attend, but nobody said anything to me.  My boss never made the sub-group list.  (no wait, he did, but he made it at 7:45 a.m. on the morning of the meeting.  too late to help me.)  Then he says to me, "I'm not mad."  Seriously?!?  You're not mad?  This meeting was a total waste of some very important people's time.  I made admirals come down to the college from their posts.  I made presidents of companies come to a NON-meeting.  I screwed up.  BUT, yeah, I had a lot of help.  From my boss.  I had never even seen the list of people to invite to this meeting.  He forwarded his request for this meeting from the wrong email thread.  The list of CORRECT attendees for this meeting didn't even exist until 45 minutes before the meeting was to start.  So, I guess he's not mad.  He has someone to blame.  me.  It sucks, but at least there were bagels.

But this wasn't even the worst thing about my day.  Oh no.  There was more.

There is a HUGE hubbub down here at the college.  Two long-time and well loved employees were fired.  One had 25 years of service and was an administrator, albeit, not at executive level and the other had 37 years of service and was support staff.  Fired.  (seriously, support staff don't get fired because of a change in administration.  support staff only get fired when they do stuff wrong.  like invite the wrong people to the wrong meeting.)  And then the all-staff email that broke the news essentially said, this is what we did and don't you dare ask us anything about it.  (also known as, F.U.)  For a college with staff that hasn't had raises in 5 and a half years, this was morale breaking.  A student blog has taken this issue on, as well as the local newspapers.  The college is stonewalling.  Silence.  When there is silence, everyone thinks the worst.  Everyone here is afraid for their jobs.  It's awful.  But what did I do to make my day even worse?  I did a stupid thing.  I opened the student blog and planned to post the link to one of the stories from the local paper.  I wasn't going to say anything or add to the fury with an actual comment.  I was just going to post the link.  And, I was going to post it anonymously, or so I thought.  But no.  No.  no.  no.  It must have been my trembling hand readying to click the mouse.  I didn't just click.  I DOUBLE clicked.  And when I double clicked not only did I post anonymously, but I posted with my Being Happy profile.  With my lovely avatar and link to my blog.  Disaster.  How UN-anonymous can you be.  My smiling face and my blog.  You know what they say about the internet, "once something is on the internet it is there forever."  (maybe they don't say it, but I certainly do.)  I had been joking about doing something similar to this earlier this very day.  Not as myself, of course, but with an actual person's name as my log-in.  (this would have been the name of a co-worker I don't like very much.  I know, it's hard to believe I don't like EVERYONE, but I don't.  can you believe that karma, or whatever you want to call it, came around and bit me in the butt so fast.  no, me either.)

It was a bad day.

I did email the owner of the blog and ask him to remove my avatar and blog info.  He was kind enough to do this.  I do feel a bit of relief.  I hate screwing up.  I REALLY hate screwing up on the internet.

417.  A husband that listens to my fears
418.  Learning a tough lesson, but surviving it
419.  A boss that gives the leftover bagels to another office to spare me the calories
420.  Friday, even if it is the 13th