Mondays aren’t all bad.

I woke up feeling much better. My computer was on from the night before. The internet wasn’t working when I went to bed, but it was up and Sara had just popped up to chat. So I pulled up a seat on the floor and we chatted for almost an hour and 20 minutes! Hooray for the internet being back on! We talked about realtors in Washington, about Gary going house hunting with Sara, driving across country with the kids. I said that if Sara left early in order to get Rebecca enrolled and started in school, maybe I could take my cross country trip with Liam. Logistically, I don’t know how that could work out, but it might be fun to have a guy’s adventure.

After that, I went to the gym where I saw that Mike failed to show up on time also. I thought I was going to be the one late this morning. But I actually showed up early (compared to Mike). My chest felt tight after yesterday’s workout, and after a little time on the elliptical, I was feeling much better. I went back to my apartment and showered and changed for work. Once at work it appeared that things were a little more hectic than they were the day before.

Chip was spun up and dashing around. Getting ready for our morning meeting. Mike, Ashley, and I prepared to help Chip out with whatever it was that needed doing to get him calmed down. In my opinion Chip has done a great job while Spencer has been gone to the conference. He is not just handling the workload, delegating what needs to be done, but shielding the remnants of the old “blue team” from other sections that look to us as free labor.

After the duties were divvied up, we all went our respective ways to start marking off our blocks of things to get done. One of the things I had to do was *protect this important folder*. The aforementioned folder had to go to from me to Jack. Jack was supposed to drive it over somewhere else and give it to person C to give to person D who was going to sign the memo that was inside. Unfortunately, Jack was NOWHERE to be found.

Here’s the funny thing… Everyone knows who Jack is, but not many people actually know his name. They know what he looks like, but not his name. He’s my neighbor, so I do know what his name is. I’d ask someone, “Hey have you seen Jack in the past thirty minutes or so?” “Who’s Jack?” “Tall, skinny white guy. Walks like this.” (then I’d demonstrate his gait.) “Oh, yeah! I saw him ten minutes ago walking that way. I didn’t know his name was Jack. We all call my Mr. Lankey.” Lankey – That describes him. Or I’d get, “I didn’t know his name was Jack.” The next best thing. NO ONE knows exactly WHERE he works. Not one person could nail down where he hangs his coat when he comes in to work. Everyone knows WHAT he does, but no one knows WHERE he does it. Unbelievable. THAT is the job I want.

So I called his boss, Carrie, who works somewhere else. Even she didn’t know where he was, but she had his cell phone. So I left instructions with her, left a note on the folder, left the folder on Chip’s desk, and I went to lunch.

And when I came back from lunch, the folder was gone. No note, no nothing. Holy poooop!!! That folder was the one important thing I had to do today! And it was gone! Chip didn’t see it, no one else had picked it up, and I still couldn’t find Jack. Seriously, I felt like I was in the middle of a practical joke/wild goose chase. Jack was supposed to drive from here to there at one thirty, so I waited by the parking lot from one o’clock until one thirty five. I was about to go back inside to tell Chip that I had no earthly idea where that darn folder went. As I was approaching the building, out came Jack. Empty handed. Ghaaah!!!

Where’s the damn folder?!? Didn’t you get the message? He said that he did and that the other guy (who’s name escapes me right now) picked up the folder and delivered it about two hours ago. WHAT!!! He called the other guy, who ended up confirming that it was indeed my folder and he gave the right name of the person who the folder was supposed to go to. I calmed back down, practiced breathing through my eyelids, and tried to be glad that the folder was delivered - just like it was supposed to. So I talked to Jack for a couple of minutes and found out that he’s from Baltimore and his fiancée is from Philly. So we talked about cheese steak sandwiches and scrapple for a few minutes. When I went back upstairs, I realized that I forgot to talk to him about where it is that he actually works.

I finished up the afternoon working with Mike (who found the whole ‘folder incident’ absolutely hysterical) working on delivery date adjustments. And, I swear I am not making this up, found out that Jack and that other guy, were moving into the office right on the other side of our conference room. Duke (the office manager) had a room that had been previously used for storage, and gave it to Jack and Mr. X. Funny how things like that work out.

A little after five, I walked to the mail room. It was locked. I guess there was no mail. SO I went to get something to eat and then went back to my room. I have to go in at three in the morning, so I have to get to sleep early tonight. Yes… Three in the morning. Not my idea of a good time, but there is a benefit. As I look at my clock, it’s quarter after seven. Mike, Ashley, Keith, Chip, and about two dozen other managers are all in Manager’s Professional Development Class!!! And I’m going to bed! HA hahaha!