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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

November the 13th

I seem to be having a little run of bad luck involving 13. Last month, Friday, October 13th, the Opening Social for the department (that I planned) was a mess. No one came. I mean, it wasn't horrible, but no one showed up.

Our Christmas Party (that I am planning) is going to be held on Wednesday, December 13th. I only hope that it goes a little better. Not that I have any big reason to care, but it would be nice. Already nearly 30 people have RSVP'd, so that doubles the number of attendees already.

In preparation for the Christmas Party, I ordered tables and chairs to be delivered to the location early in the day of Wednesday, December 13th. I have checked my work order approximately 7 times now, just to make sure. You see, yesterday was Monday, November 13th. As my luck would have it I got a very irate phone call from the custodial staff at the Bean Museum (where our party will be held). They wanted to know exactly why 25 tables and 176 chairs were dropped off that morning. I explained to them that I did order those chairs, but for a month later--in December, you know, for our Christmas Party.

No more than 5 minutes later, I got a call from the Moving Crew demanding an explaination and "if this was [my] idea of a joke." I again had to explain that I ordered them for December 13th, not November. I quoted the work order number and read word-for-word what I had requested.

I thought that my battle was over. But I was wrong.

I got to work this morning and I had a few phone messages asking me to "clear this up." They were getting some "mixed messages" some "miscommunication on [my] part" and were just confused in general. I've been trying to get a hold of them to clear this up all morning. Alas, no one ever answers the phone. Oh, well.

So, I went to tell Marcie about it. She is the other secretary in our department. After I got done telling her this she said, "No way, I got called about that, too." She had ordered a PA system and projector screen from the Office of IT to be delivered at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, December 13th. She got a call yesterday (on her personal phone, no less. She had already left the office) shortly after 5:30 pm asking her why a PA system and projector screen had been delivered at the Bean Museum.

I think it rather coincidental that 2 departments incidently delivered equipment independently of each other on the same day. They both had made the same mistake. Just too random.

I'm just glad that I'm not 100% in charge of the Christmas Party, otherwise I would really worry about the out come of this party.

2 comments:

  1. Nancy, you're a better person than I am. I can't stand planning events like that, and I would probably have been a lot meaner than you were to those people who made mistakes and were yelling at ME for it.

    On the same note...Jeremy and I got married on November 20, 2001, and had a lovely luncheon at a place called Ernesto's near the Portland Temple. A year later, on November 20, 2002, Ernesto's called Jeremy's parents in Idaho Falls, demanding to know where they were - they had everything set up for a luncheon and were upset that nobody had showed! It's funny how angry people get over these things - it always makes it more awkward when they figure out that it was their fault...

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  2. I hope it wasn't my ex-father inlaw who is a custodian somewhere at BYU

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