My Terrible Tuesday (OT)

[ForeverAutumn]

Have you ever had one of those days where you keep thinking that things can’t get any worse and then they do? Here's my "what could go wrong, did go wrong" Tuesday.

I’m on a business trip, by myself, in a fairly small Northern city called North Bay. A nice little town nestled between two lakes. I checked the weather forecast before I left Toronto and the report called for the possibility of a few scattered showers on Tuesday. Well, Monday night a major storm rolled into town. Totally unpredicted. We’re talking flash floods and washed-out roads. The lights in the hotel began flickering. I called the front desk to see if they had an extra flashlight that I could borrow “just in case”. The very sweet girl at the desk told me that they did have extra flashlights, but she didn’t’ know where they were. Five minutes later, the power went out. I remembered that I keep a flashlight in my car. So, using the glow from my cell phone as my guide, I ran out into the rain to my car. The flashlight that I normally keep in my glovebox was nowhere to be found! And I was now soaking wet.

The power returned about a half hour later. But, of course, I didn’t sleep very well because I had a 9:00 meeting and I was afraid that the alarm clock wouldn’t go off if the power went out again during the night. And the very sweet desk clerk wasn’t sure if my wake-up call would stay programmed in the system if the power went out again.

Tuesday morning it’s still pouring rain. I get to my 9:00 meeting only to find out that the client cancelled. Apparently, he called the hotel to tell me but missed me by a minute. The desk clerk ran outside (or so I was told) to try and catch me but I was gone. Stupid client didn’t call my cell phone! A wasted morning. And I could have slept. I did have some productive afternoon meetings.

Late in the afternoon I drive from North Bay to Sudbury. About a 1.5 hour drive. I get to Sudbury on Tuesday evening, totally exhausted. I check into my hotel and it's being renovated. No ceiling in the hallway. Pipes and wires hanging everywhere. No lighting. The beds in the room looked about 30 years old and dusty as can be. Not what the internet picture looked like! And they want $100 for me to stay there. They should have been paying me!!! I walk into the room and, just as quickly, turn around and walk out. I go to my car and phone the travel agent to book me somewhere else. She does. Along the way, I lost the room key. So, not only do I have to go to front desk with the insult that I'm not spending the night there and try to convince them not to charge me for the room, but I have to do it without the room key that they gave me less than five minutes ago. I did finally find the room key and returned it to them before driving away. Whew!

I get to my new hotel. The room is a beautiful newly renovated one bedroom suite (for only $20 more than the dusty hole). I think to my exhausted and hungry self, "finally, things are looking up". I get my luggage from the trunk of my car. I close the trunk and promptly realize that my car keys are no longer in my hand, but are locked in the trunk of my car! It's a good thing that I have a sense of humour because I was truly ready to cry, but instead, I laughed. So, I called CAA to come and rescue my keys. The CAA guy uses a slim jim to unlatch my door lock, but then can't get the slim jim out. It snagged on something. He must have jiggled that thing around for a good five minutes before he finally got it out. After that, I just had a quick bite to eat and went to bed. I really need to end Tuesday as quickly as possible! I've never been so happy to see Wednesday!

[ForeverAutumn]

The drive home was filled with spectacular scenery. This is a picture of the French River, just south of Sudbury.

[Finch Platte]

...it's obvious to me that you're not drinking enough.

fp

[Slosh]

I never have problems. Obviously, I don't have a problem with never having problems.

[BarryL]

Write one of these a week and you've got a sitcom on your hands. See how easy it can be? If you want to embellish your story, you could say that you shorted-out your cell phone in the rain, and so when the client called on your cell phone, you were unable to receive the call.

You need to keep a diary.

[dld]

and our bosses wonder why we are tempted to fudge a wee bit on our expense accounts. We should get bonus hazardous pay for travel. I've had some crappy trips. Don't think I've had one night as bad as that tho. It'll get better.

[Dave_G]

My worst trip was when I went to Japan.

The flights over there just about killed me. I just am not made for that stuff.

Anyway we finally get there and I start feeling "weird". Like the "I'm fixing to hurl" weird. We are in this commuter train, packed in like sardines, and the guy I'm with said "you are whiter than your shirt". Great. I'm in Japan, packed in this train, and I have to hurl. Somehow I fought it off until we get to this business place. I go into a bathroom and hurl, hurl, hurl. It was nasty. I was so embarrased.

I asked for some water and they bring out this tenny tiny little cup. I ask "can I have about 50 of those please". They look at me like I'm some weirdo. (well, I am, but that's beside the point).

Anyway to add to the pain I didn't have enough Braves hats to pass out to the guys so it was crappy meeting.

We didn't get the order, either.

Dave

[BarryL]

[QUOTE=Dave_G]My worst trip was when I went to Japan.

The flights over there just about killed me. I just am not made for that stuff.


For some reason, I think these kinds of stories are really funny.

I'm going to print this thread!!

Fortunately, nothing very slapstick funny ever happens to me (or at least from my perspective).

[ForeverAutumn]

For some reason, I think these kinds of stories are really funny.

I'm going to print this thread!!

Fortunately, nothing very slapstick funny ever happens to me (or at least from my perspective).

I don't know about that. I'd still give up my savings for a video tape of "the mustard incident".

[ForeverAutumn]

[QUOTE=BarryL]Write one of these a week and you've got a sitcom on your hands. See how easy it can be? If you want to embellish your story, you could say that you shorted-out your cell phone in the rain, and so when the client called on your cell phone, you were unable to receive the call.[QUOTE]

Or....I wore out the battery using my cell phone as a flashlight and because the power was out, I couldn't charge my phone. So, I tried to charge my phone using my car charger, but my car battery was dead, so the car charger wouldn't work either.

[Hyfi]

You got paid for all that. I've had vacations go sorta like that and I was the one paying for it all. I'm glad your sense of humor kicked in when it was needed. hehehe and you begged for this job, didn't ya?