Monday, January 05, 2009

It's just not my day

...inspite of the hope I had for it; or maybe because of it.

It began with waking up later than planned, because I was exhausted with yesterday's activities and the previous night's lack of sleep. I ignored that and tried to set things right by planning to cook a meal, visit the bank, and then go to work.

The first thing that caught my attention after that was a cheque lying on the living room table. It was a payment to be made to the security agency that provides its services to our apartment building. The moron who went to deposit it into the bank had added to the name that was already addressed to. To top that, he added the wrong word, scratched it out, and wrote another word. To top that too, he spelled the final word incorrectly. Obviously, the bank did not accept the cheque, and it came to us to be signed again.

I was so thoroughly pissed with this ineptitude that I wanted to do something physically harsh. So I went to the kitchen and started scrubbing all the utencils that were lying in the wash basin since 3 days. Of course, the hubs' attempts at comforting me weren't helpful at all, because I was pissed beyond reasoning. Around the same time, someone from the security agency called, but before I could run to answer, the hubs had finished the conversation and cut the call. Luckily for me, the guy came to collect the cheque before I left for work, and I could vent all my anger on him. I sometimes think we should conduct life skills classes for everyone, to teach such simple things. Arrrgghh! The stupidity that I have to put up with everyday!

As if that wasn't enough, the maid issue came up. This weekend, a maid was supposed to begin work with us. She was asked to come only on the weekends (as opposed to all days of the month): on Saturday--sweep the house, mop it once with phenyl and then again with plain water, and on Sunday--clean the window bars and dust all the furniture. She would be paid the regular month's salary. Now what is so objectionable in that? First of all the lady did not come over by herself. I happened to see her in the passageway, and when asked about beginning her work, she said that her sister would do it instead. Okay. Sister welcomed in on Saturday, told to do the aforementioned tasks. Noone bloody turns up on Sunday at all. So as soon I hear her going over to the neighbor's place this morning, I get hold of her, and she explains on behalf of her sister that it's not acceptable to mop the floor twice instead of once. Also, nobody cleans the window bars, etc. I tried to reason that these were the very tasks I was paying her for, and she was getting the complete month's salary for working only 8 days! Well, as I learned for the n-th time, there's no reasoning with these people. They're bloody stupid and can't understand that "just because it is, doesn't mean it should be" (line cheekily stolen from Australia). Arrrrrgggghh! Again!

I go through the morning rituals and head out for office, and as usual, the road is full of more moronic drivers. I get past that, and even as I am about to enter my work area, I have a sudden feeling of joy such that I would have hugged and kissed the first colleague in sight. So I rush over and back-slap a colleague who's returned from her holidays unexpectedly early, asking her how she's been. I hear that she lost her grandad on the first of this year, due to which she had to cut short her fun trip to Bangalore. Sigh! Doesn't look like the day's getting any better. I get to my desk and notice that I had forgotten to send out my status report last week, so I do that hurriedly. Just as I get that out of my way, my team lead comes up saying that a colleague from another team who used to be our neighbors, lost her mother on the second day of this year. Shocking, and most unexpected: we had just had a fun chat with her the previous day over a tea break! Even more sickening news. I had to stop everything and vent. So there. Hope yours isn't as bad a day as this.

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