An exercise in frustration

[pegkerr]

One of the unspoken but very real duties of secretaries legal administrative assistants case assistants in my law firm is that when an attorney has a birthday, the assistant is expected to brings in treats. She puts the treats up on the ledge over her desk and sends an email around the office: "Attorney X's birthday is today, stop by Y's desk for some chocolate chip cookies and wish him/her Happy Birthday."

So one of my attorneys had a birthday today. I have been assigned to twenty-one different attorneys at one time or another over the past fourteen years, which means I have brought innumerable pans of cakes, brownies and platefuls of cookies into the office. (I have five attorneys assigned to me right now.) I was tired last night and really Not In The Mood, but there is that unspoken obligation. So I went out to the grocery story, bought box mix for Ghirardelli brownies (the best one on the market, and dammit, I should know after so many attorney birthdays). I made them up and told myself, "Okay, don't forget to bring them in the morning."

Of course, I forgot them. I had an appointment to go to first thing so my morning routine was a little different than usual anyway. I had to go back for them. When I got into the office, I discovered that the attorney had decided to take her birthday as a vacation day, so she wasn't even there (can't blame her, really, since she was involved in the Big Honking Case in Iowa that just settled).

So, I didn't send around the traditional e-mail, but simply kept the brownies up on my ledge, telling people as they came by that they were welcome to take a piece. At the end of the day, half the pan was still left, and I was pleased, because it meant I could take the leftovers home to the girls, who love Ghiradelli brownies.

You guessed it. I forgot and left the pan of brownies at the office.

Argh.

Comments

[splagxna.livejournal.com]

...i completely understand your frustration, but am hung up on the aspect that it's your responsibility to bring in birthday treats for your boss.

am i nuts? this just seems really inappropriate to me.

[nmsunbear.livejournal.com]

I had the same general feeling.

But mmm, Ghirardelli brownies really are the best. Better than any I've managed to make from scratch.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Just part of the firm's culture. It's annoying, but then they feel obligated to get me stuff for Administrative Assistant day and at year end. I probably get the better end of the deal.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear it's a two way street on some level. Still, it's clearly a bit onerous to have to use your personal time to shop and bake and cart the darn things around.

[aome.livejournal.com]

At my husband's office, it's become policy for the managers to provide the birthday cake for any/all department members who had a birthday that month - the various managers are assigned their 'months' to take care of this. He is equally enthralled by this responsibility (he was promoted to manager a year or two ago).

[raasalhayya.livejournal.com]

You took a tray of Ghiradelli brownies to work and there was half a pan left at the end of the day? What kind of weirdo mutants do you work with?!?!?!?!

Oh yeah...attorneys.

Kidding! :-D

[aome.livejournal.com]

I had a day of spilling things - including MiniPlu knocking a full (unwrapped) bar of butter on the floor while we were making brownies, and then my dropping 3 brownies on the porch when I took the cooling rack outside to cool them faster. We won't go into the various messes and spills that happened during dinner prep. :P

So, anyway - my sympathies with the repetitive single-themed frustrations. But I agree - my SIL makes the Ghirardelli brownie mix, and they're WONDERFUL. (I've got a pretty simple family recipe involving Ghir. cocoa, if you ever want to try that, too.) Hopefully your leftover brownies will still be there tomorrow. *fingers crossed*

Serious Argh!

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Boy, does this sound like the day I went out to take care of 3 three things and a) drove the wrong way b) forgot the thing to drop off and c) did the third thing incompletely, so had to repeat later in the week.

Why can't we just skip these days? Say "Do overs" or something?

Re: Serious Argh!

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Makes me think of something that happened one day when I was working at the kid's psych ward. One little girl was having a HELLA'VA morning, and it looked like she was gearing up for a catastrophic day. One of the nurses took her to her room, had her go in, turn around and then walk out. "There, " she said, "your day has started all over."

And it worked.

Me, I feel like I've been having a lot of falling, slipping, dropping things days, and I hate dropping things. It doesn't help that it seems to me that my left knee has 'backslide' and I'm having the same sort of problems that I had weeks ago.

Ok, time to walk through the bedroom door again.

(And I suppose it would work better if I had a bedroom door...)

Re: Serious Argh!

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Makes me think of something that happened one day when I was working at the kid's psych ward. One little girl was having a HELLA'VA morning, and it looked like she was gearing up for a catastrophic day. One of the nurses took her to her room, had her go in, turn around and then walk out. "There, " she said, "your day has started all over."

And it worked.

Oooo, I like her thinking. And sometimes it might do the trick! I also think that a cup of tea and sitting and spacing out an attractive window for fifteen minutes can do wonders for "do-overs." But I understand having the "drop-sees" -- my grip is wimpy right now, so I try to be very careful with breakables. Especially since once I deep-sixed a Palm pilot with a drop.

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

Your subconscious is telling you that you need to have some brownies all to yourself! 8)