Publius & Co.

The GF better get outta my way.

I'm PMS'ing. Seriously.

Earlier today at work, I had a craving for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Just one of those stupid things that came over me, so I thought I'd be cute and send an e-mail to the gf saying I want a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I didn't need the calories, so I just left it at that. I was being goofy, you know?

Then I got The Call.

It was a service call: an attorney needed a network cable in a conference room NOW. Normally, they book the rooms weeks in advance, but forget to ask for other services. We don't keep network cables in the conference rooms (reasonably so, IMO) because they're less-than-tidy, and you can't have a less-than-tidy conference room. If they had let me know in advance, I'd have had time to get a cable in there, check out the connection as a just-in-case, and they'd have waltzed in, done what they needed to do, and waltzed out.

Not today. I get there, and the telecon is in progress. Everyone is whispering; the two Senior Partners in there glare at me as I bring in the cable. The Associate grabs the cable and starts to plug it into a phone jack. I point at the network jack (they're orange) and she looks at me as if I had a second head. I point more emphatically, then whisper I'll be right outside--you may have to reboot before you get a connection and I beat feet to just outside the closed door.

A few moments later, Mr. Murphy (he of The Law) makes his presence known: The door cracks open, the associate leans out and whispers that she doesn't have a connection.

To shorten this up, I checked the wire closet (everything was patched thru), went downstairs to get another cable...I ended up getting a twenty-foot cable reaching around to the side opposite from where the associate was. It took me about twenty-five minutes to get the attorneys in a position where they could do their job. I've seen what these guys bill per hour; two associates & two partners and those twenty-five minutes probably cost the client close to $1k.

I was not in a good mood. Fortunately, the candy machine was one floor down. Reese's!

I got back to my desk, and I was in an extremely foul mood. I had an email from the gf: You PMS'ing? she asked, in reply to my little tongue-in-cheek joke about wanting some Reese's.

I am *now*.

I answered, then continued:

I decided to wait--I don't need the calories. Then I got a support thing: Telecon going on, need a network cable now. Rooms are scheduled days in advance, but they never remember it takes time to set things up...

Of course, the network connection is fucked up. After I get it straightened out,
I decide, fuck calories, I'll get my Reese's.

Go to the candy machine, and Reese's are E-10. So I drop my 60 cents, hit
E-1-0...but the thing started dispensing at 1, and out dropped Twizzlers.

Fuck. Turns out there's a '10' button, against everything else where when you
need to punch a '1' and a '0' you either have the '10' button up top (elevators)
or it waits until you hit the '1' then the '0'.

I ate the fucking Twizzlers anyway, but now I'm PMS'ing.

When I got home (late, but that's another story involving a Senior Partner), the gf had Reese's waiting for me.

Posted by Victor at Octubre 17, 2003 08:54 PM