So this morning I pulled some reports for some schools for work. (I teach online for K12.) I have never done this type of report before, so I was nervous going in. It was some fancy excel stuff I'd never done before. I stressed about it for a week before it was time to pull the report.
In the end, it was VERY simple. I was so proud of myself for getting it done. Then came the time to e-mail the reports the various people who needed them. I pulled up the map to see who to send the reports to. I had one for South Carolina and one for Wyoming.
I got the reports sent off to the various people who needed them and breathed a huge sigh of relief. A little while after sending off the Wyoming report, I got an e-mail from my boss saying she had forwarded the Wyoming report to the correct person who needed it. In addition to sending it to her, I had copied in the wrong person.
I was surprised at this, as I had checked the map twice before sending it on. I responded to Robin's e-mail thanking her for fixing my mistake and just commented that I was surprised because on the map, Wyoming was light orange- the color indicating the person I had sent the report.
I got Robin's response within a few minutes. I could tell she was laughing- just not in a malicious way. Her response was short. "That was Colorado." Then she had a little note that she wouldn't judge my geography if I wouldn't judge her grammar and that she knew I wasn't a geography teacher. (Tongue in cheek, though it's true.)
Nice way to impress the boss right before the holidays.... :) I was SO embarrassed. I responded just saying that I was embarrassed. Then I promised not to judge her grammar... I told her it was my idiot gene popping up- it tended to do that when I was awake...
I learned two things from this. 1) Pride does go before the fall. I was so proud of myself for having pulled the report off that I didn't quite think things through after that. 2) It's good to laugh at ourselves. I had two choices- be totally humiliated and hide from any contact with Robin for as long as possible and hope she forgot or I could laugh at myself because what I'd done WAS funny.
I choose to laugh. I hope I can always make that choice. I hope we all can. :)
Friday, December 21, 2012
Even the Piano!
At the beginning of the month, I was in charge of the Relief Society Christmas Party. We did a Christmas program- a cantata. It was a lot of work to put together. I wrote the cantata (not the music- we put existing songs together and I wrote the narration) and we had a committee that put together everything else.
Everything that could possibly go wrong with the program, did. We had some difficulties with the flyers, so not everyone who SHOULD have been invited got one. Some people who were supposed to sing had to cancel last minute. That meant I had to adjust the script just two days before the party, and then again the day of.
We set up for the party. The committee made the room look beautiful and the treats were amazing. Then my narrator let us know she couldn't come.... So I was the narrator at the last minute.
As my friend Catherine and I moved the piano to a more aesthetically pleasing location, the wheel came off. As the piano sunk to one corner, we both stopped, shocked. Then the laughter followed. Everything had gone wrong- we EVEN BROKE THE PIANO! Fortunately, there was a gentleman present with the ability to put the wheel back on and help us move the piano where it needed to be- all in one piece and usable for the night.
The program went off beautifully. Those who found out all the issues we had getting it going were shocked- no one had any idea it wasn't how we'd planned from the beginning.
I knew all along that the program would be fine in the end. But that didn't minimize for one second the stress we all had about getting it there.
I just thought we could all use a reminder that even though we get caught up in the moment, the Lord knows where we will all end up. He will help us get there. In the end, we will look back and realize that it all went off beautifully, even though there was stress and heartache along the way.
Everything that could possibly go wrong with the program, did. We had some difficulties with the flyers, so not everyone who SHOULD have been invited got one. Some people who were supposed to sing had to cancel last minute. That meant I had to adjust the script just two days before the party, and then again the day of.
We set up for the party. The committee made the room look beautiful and the treats were amazing. Then my narrator let us know she couldn't come.... So I was the narrator at the last minute.
As my friend Catherine and I moved the piano to a more aesthetically pleasing location, the wheel came off. As the piano sunk to one corner, we both stopped, shocked. Then the laughter followed. Everything had gone wrong- we EVEN BROKE THE PIANO! Fortunately, there was a gentleman present with the ability to put the wheel back on and help us move the piano where it needed to be- all in one piece and usable for the night.
The program went off beautifully. Those who found out all the issues we had getting it going were shocked- no one had any idea it wasn't how we'd planned from the beginning.
I knew all along that the program would be fine in the end. But that didn't minimize for one second the stress we all had about getting it there.
I just thought we could all use a reminder that even though we get caught up in the moment, the Lord knows where we will all end up. He will help us get there. In the end, we will look back and realize that it all went off beautifully, even though there was stress and heartache along the way.
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