So ends the work week

Ugh. Just sent a sternly-worded e-mail to one of my sweetest and most patient coworkers. I value her greatly, but I think she puts too much faith into leading by example and not enough into bringing the hammer down when necessary.

I'll admit, I was somewhat out of sorts today. Even if it's just a routine checkup, I'm always anxious about medical appointments. (When you depend on public transit to get across town, there's a lot that can go wrong.) Just to keep the stress level up, I agreed to attend a meeting right after the end of my shift with the understanding that I'd have to leave early. Plus I've slept poorly the last couple nights and yadda yadda.

So there I am, doing rounds, taking headcounts, fielding telephone calls, sending faxes, checking in audiovisual equipment, etc. Meanwhile, except for answering a couple of easy questions and chatting with one of her friends, all my partner did was mess about online. She got a technical question involving a password, completely mishandled it, and then dumped the patron on me, which resulted in my workstation and phone being tied up for twenty minutes while the poor woman consulted with a techie on a problem we should've been able to solve for her in two. (She was typing it in wrong. Happens all the time, and is easily fixed by spending a moment with them while they try it again.) Then this dear child turns to me helplessly when asked to grant a guess pass--literally one of the most basic things we do. Shortly afterwards, my sweethearted coworker arrives to relieve me and finds me still arguing with this dimwit. (I told her I didn't want to discuss the matter with her in the middle of a shift, but she wouldn't leave me alone.)

Then I get to the meeting and find that one of the participants will be late. When he arrives, he starts messing with the computer setup in the room (which he's never used before) so he can show us some file on his PC. I have to insist that he leave it so we can get to covering all the major points before I have to book it. And it's a good thing I did, because I somehow managed to get off a stop early on my way to the appointment and walk an additional mile to the doctor's office. Amazingly, he took me right at the scheduled time (well, not so amazing I guess when you consider that ten minutes later I saw him in the hallway laden with two tote bags and obviously on his way somewhere for the weekend).

*exhalation*

After that, the whole tenor of the day changed. It might still have been damp, gray, and a touch chilly, but I was on my way to meet monshu (who, caught flatfooted by the schedule shift was legging it to a cab) at Meinl for Old World comfort food. At his insistence, I had a slice of Mozartkuchen and a Mélange while I waited. I knew the restaurant wouldn't be a mob scene, but I hadn't expected it nearly empty. I unloaded my tale of woe on him when he arrived, then ordered the goulash for him and the Käsekrainer Spätzle for me (something of a misnomer, as the cheese was on the sausage rather than inside it).

Our server's high spirits complimented the mood. I asked if they could do a lemonade flavoured with elderflower syrup. "Sure," she said, "we could call it an 'elder-ade'." When I pointed out that that sounded like some sort of social welfare programme, she decided to go all Tolkien and called it, "An 'Eldar'. Like the name for the elves in the Silmarillon." (Yeah, you better believe she got a fat tip.) It had warmed up a bit, so the Old Man agreed to walk to the bus stop while I voiced my envy at the beautiful black-eyed susans in everyone's gardens. The northern horizon was an eerie orange and my work woes (and his) were far away.