I can't even think of a title at this point

... now that I've written the whole post, I have a title ...
A Day (or Two) In the Life

It all started yesterday morning when I rode the Metro downtown to VA Central Office to renew my badge. Someone waiting in line pointed out that my fly was open. Gray pants and bright fuschia panties. Nice.

As I sat waiting, I realized I forgot my social security card. Since my badge was expired, I would need two forms of ID. The good news was that no one noticed. It still took an hour because the system kept going down. They printed the new badge, they just couldn't release it till the system allowed them to check me out.

So I stopped at Starbucks and they were out of wraps, so I got a muffin. Three different people wanted to see me at work, but I stopped first to meet our newest team member. She's really nice but I spent very little time because I checked my bberry and found message from the client staff. Apparently someone on my team meant to send ME an email complaining about the client, and instead, replied to the client.

I had to do some recovery with the client and convince the team member not to jump out of the window. While consoling the client, the vendor called. They were on the hot seat for some recent issues and needed me to QA their presentation.

So I made sure the staff was on track for the 11 am conference call and proceeded to put out fires. Well, everyone wasn't on track. The one person who was supposed to facilitate the call didn't show up. Not good.

Desperate to catch up on the bucket brigade and at least have ONE thing go right, I asked a coworker to read the project announcement on the national call at noon so I could finalize the slides for the 1:00 meeting. No problem. Till 12:17 when I started getting email messages saying "aren't you doing an announcement" and "no one is answering for you on the call". Apparently, technical difficulties prevented her from un-muting so her announcement came last, and after much confusion.

I think it was at this point that I finally ate the muffin.

The 1:00 meeting was at VA, so I jumped in a cab. Our meeting was on the 5th floor. The 5th floor was locked with a keypad and the conference table was loaded with books and binders. We went up to 7 and it took 15 mins to get everyone in the same room. The presentation went ok, but key folks had to leave at the 1 hr mark and it was at the 1:04 hr mark that we got to the slides with questions.

My 3:00 meeting with the client was supposed to be easy. Despite the fact that I had only had a handful of carrots in the previous 30 minutes, I had a good attitude. The client did not. She was mad at the vendor, remember? Our meeting went a little longer than expected, so I was late picking up the new girl from the lobby for our 4:15 project kickoff.

We started around 4:20 and my boss says "so, you are running this meeting, right?" Actually, the meeting was ok, but again ran long and we were late to dinner. With the vendor. Who was going to get yelled at the next morning and wanted us to tell them what to do to recover.

The restaurant menu was kind of weird. -- Who would eat dandelion greens on purpose? -- I ordered the shrimp flatbread ... a mini pizza. Very mini. We weren't done until 9 so I didn't get home until 10.

Note that I hadn't been online all day. Two hours later, I'd gotten through my email. Now it was time to write that proposal I was supposed to do last Friday. Seriously. I finally went to bed at 4:45 am. Up at 6:45 this morning to do it all over again.

I had *lots* of coffee today. Mike took me downtown (ok, so that took an hour instead of the normal 20 minutes) and picked me up from the Metro so I didn't have to drive or cab it. Someone else bought my lunch. I completed the slides for tomorrow's presentation, plus two other things that HAD to be done. The only bad news? My shoes gave me a giant blister on the bottom of my foot. As I was leaving the office to come home for Aly's open house, I twisted my ankle and popped the blister during my wipe-out on the sidewalk. In downtown DC. On K Street. So both feet hurt and I had to hobble all the way to the Metro. And it was 5:45 so I didn't get a seat.

We were on time for the open house, even though I was running later than expected. Actually, we were early. The 7:00 open house didn't really start until 7:35. And kids weren't supposed to go. So Aly was the only kid in the room while the teacher was trying to give parents insight on his approach to teaching. And, by the way, there was no time to TALK to the teacher. Please sign up for an appointment. Beginning 10/26.

So, I just got to eat dinner. And now I really have to finish that proposal. Or maybe I'll actually sleep tonight? Hmmm, maybe after I shower and pack for our trip. Because we're leaving to drive to Boonville after Mike's football game tomorrow around 9 pm. I suppose I can catch up on my sleep in the car.

Such is the life. If you made it this far, you finally know how a day in the life of Tonya goes.

ETA: Actually, I think this all started on Monday. I went directly to the restroom when I got to work and as I washed my hands, I realized I had completely forgotten to put on makeup. Frightening. In addition to the PMS, this gave me every reason to come home early. I'm starting to worry that tomorrow might be a disaster.