The Throbbing Eyeball and Process X

I woke up this morning with a throbbing right eyeball. Punching myself in my sleep? Wearing goggles for the first time in eons? Who knows.. But if ever there was a day to test my new resolve of putting issues in perspective, today was it.

My throbbing eyeball and I entered work armed with our skinny cappuccino, braced for what was going to be a hectic day. Once a month I have to spend most of the day running a process at work which I have about as much affection for as Jen has for Ange. Boss: “So – I need you to check on A, B and C for me, it’s pretty important.” Me: “It’s X day.” Boss: “Ohhh. Yes of course, forget what I said. Do you want another cup of coffee?” It is on this day that my team steers well out of my way for fear of incurring The Wrath – which – while directed at the computer screen, could easily re-route to some poor unsuspecting soul. Team junior: “Morning! How was your evening?” Me: “It’s X day.” TJ: “Oooerrr… speak to you this afternoon.”

Today though, I decided to try and be a more reasonable person and swear less at the computer. This worked well for an hour or so, so I tested out behaving amiably and engaging in conversation with Boss and TJ – I even smiled. Risky. It seems both had hidden depths of pent up monologue-type conversation just itching to get out. An hour later process X had fallen over, and I was envisioning duct tape across their mouths while inwardly cursing like a stressed out Tourette’s sufferer. The *%$!$*! process took 2 hours longer than usual today – partly due to *!%$%! system issues and partly due to this conversation malarky. My eyeball throbbed the entire time.

I don’t have a moral to my story – but I THINK on the whole, I swore less at the computer than usual.