How many plates of food can you carry? And where did the people at table 4 go?

The other day I had only one to-do item on my calendar for that day: have a lunch with a couple of friends. Hooray! I was going to have a wonderful, relaxed day: maybe a little puttering around the house, and perhaps even do a fair bit of reading!

Well, that’s not how the day went. When I checked my email in the morning, there were suddenly several things that needed to happen, and be completed before the (business) day ended. I had to compile and pay my quarterly taxes (I had to have them postmarked that day – my fault for procrastinating on that – put a reminder in my calendar for next quarter!), I had to coordinate and scheduling of two meetings in the same week with two different groups, and I had to get fill out, sign and fax paperwork immediately for a convention that I am suddenly going to next weekend.

And if that wasn’t enough, the waste management truck could not get to the trash on my street because there was a car broken down (not mine, thank goodness), and it happened to be in front of my house. So, after a few minutes of confusion on how the truck was going to get around the car, the tow truck came along and moved the car out of the way. Whew! One crisis down!

The next point of confusion was that when I initially responded to schedule one of the meetings I had been tasked to schedule, I requested it be scheduled it for the right time, right day, but for the wrong month! So – of course, I send a second email to all the meeting participants – only to state the right time, right month, but now I got the day wrong – d’oh!!! Well, I guess the third time really is a charm, because I got all the particles of date and time of a meeting down correctly. And, fortunately, the meeting participants were all very supportive and understanding – some even got a good laugh out of all the confusion. Even I had to laugh at the crazy turn of events for the day, but I stayed with it and got it all straightened out! 

In amidst all this, I did manage to attend my lunch with friends; the restaurant was fairly busy, and there was only one server taking care of the tables. When the server came out with our food (still in good time in spite of the lack of other staff to help), with plates balanced on her arms, she had a look of confusion on her face. Apparently, while my friends and I were talking, the people at a table in the corner had moved to a different table.

I suddenly empathized with her – her day had probably started out with a simple enough task: go to work. And suddenly chaos crept in. She, too, stayed with it and did her best. If she was stressed, she didn’t let it show; it didn’t even slow her down, and she was very pleasant to all the patrons. We even commended her for doing a great job under the circumstances.

We all have days that start out one way and suddenly go in a very different direction; days that throw us off balance and cause us to slip up. It may seem embarrassing and frustrating, but you may find that people are actually quite understanding and accommodating. It may even make for an interesting story at the end of the day!     

Laurie Anderson, 24 July 2010