Mark your calendars

I think everyone has those days when they wake up and simply do not want to get out of bed. It's too early, you are too tired, there is too much to do, there's a good chance that, once again, the cat dragged the bathmat into the litterbox... I call these days: "Weekdays." But I'm sure you've got your own name for them. Whatever you call those days, they probably leave you with a feeling of apathy. And, if you're anything like me, you get out of bed and face the day anyway.



Today was one of those days for me. I knew right off the bat it was going to be rough because we were going to be short staffed. That's never a good thing. Then throw in the fact that I was up late and had trouble sleeping at all because of the wonderful new piece of specifically formed plastic I get to shove in my mouth every night and you've got yourself a recipe for morning dread stew.



I'm a professional though, so I got up and prepared for the day. I made the 45-minute commute. I sat down at my desk, logged in and started on the day's work. The time passed by pretty quickly as it often does when I'm that busy. And then it happened.



I spend the majority of my weekdays hoping for things like this to happen. I think, "Maybe today is the day. If it is, I will call this my lucky day, and I will mark it on my calendar and celebrate its anniversary next year and for all the years to come after that. I imagine I'll wear a party hat sometimes. Maybe I'll even propose a toast to anyone that will listen. It will probably not be recognized by any of the proper authorities, but I will consider it a holiday and that will be enough."



So, "what the _________ happened?" you say? (You can fill in the expletive yourself. I'll give you some examples and you can just run with it. You could say, Blazes, or Tom Jones, or Ford Edsel, or chunky monkey, or soft leather glove (although I don't really recommend this one as it hardly makes any sense.).) Well I'm glad you asked because I had kind of forgotten what my point was and you so subtly reminded me why I'm writing this in the first place.



The power went out. Not for five minutes. Not for twenty minutes. Not for one hour. Not for an hour and a half. Not for two hours. Not for two hours and thirty-seven minutes, but for three hours and five minutes, we were completely in the dark. Well, the windows were open, so there was some natural light, but for the most part, it was pretty dark.



This is like a get out of jail free card. You get to goof off at work, not do anything but chat it up with the coworkers and just be happy in general because there's nothing you can do about it and it's not your fault... Well, unless you were the one who fried the breaker switch and did so much damage that it had to be completely replaced. But they cannot prove that you did, so there you have it, a fault-free day off that you still get paid for and don't feel guilty about because you couldn't have done it any differently.



I think we should do this once a week... Maybe twice. I really think it would build company morale and ultimately, bond us all together. We'd be doing it for the good of the company, and isn't that what matters most?