Happy Wednesday! After 2 weeks off between my son’s school play and a wretched cold, I’m back. In case I didn’t mention it 300 times, my older kid was in Grease: School Version (G-rated). He played “neighborhood boy.” What he didn’t mention was that he got to be a hula-hooper in the finale. It was a great show, and all the kids were fantastic.
I wasn’t so great with my ROW80 goals, and I’m having a hard time getting back to them. I’m going to put in a bit more effort this week.
- Read 30 minutes/day—Yep
- Write 1 hour/day—Finally!!!
- Write 1 blog post/week that isn’t ROW80 or WIPpet—Not exactly.
- Write 1 flash fiction/month—Um, no. I didn’t do one last month, either. Ugh.
- Walk on the treadmill 5 days/week—No. More snow. Seriously, Elsa is fired.
On to my WIPpet. I already introduced you to Trevor and Andre in the the first snippet, then posted about Trevor moving in with his three roommates. Andre’s getting some changes too, but not before he endures an annoying day at the office.
WIPmath: 3 + 4 = 7 paragraphs.
Andre Cole gripped the phone tightly, barely restraining himself from shouting at the person on the other end of the line. I hate this job, he thought. Out loud, he said, “Have you tried uninstalling the program and reinstalling it?”
The customer gave him an earful, explaining why she couldn’t possibly do that. Andre sighed. It was going to be a long day. By the time he hung up with the clueless woman, he was already drained and in need of a break. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman at the next desk, Jagathi, smirking.
“Do not even start with me,” Andre told her.
“I did not say a word.”
“I hate this job,” Andre muttered.
“That is the fifth time you said it since you arrived today. What has you all in knots?” Jagathi asked.
“Oh, maybe the fact that I sort of imagined I’d have moved on from fixing the first-world problems of luddites by now. Or possibly the fact that every single conversation I’ve had today could have been prevented by simply reading the damn instructions.” Andre huffed.
I’ll try to visit as many WIPpets as I can this week, but no guarantees I’ll hit them all. I have a fairly tight schedule and a copyediting job I’m excited to finish up. The sooner I’m done, the sooner the author gets it out to the public, and trust me, that’s a good thing. 🙂
If you enjoyed that, you should see what my fellow writers have in store for you. Take a look at the other entries and add your own here. Thanks to K. L. Schwengel for hosting us. Happy writing!
My friend worked tech support for an internet company. He had stories like this. My heart goes out to Andre.
I’m with you on the snow. I’m sick of it too and want it to melt away already. There’s snow out there from my birthday in January! I think you got the best goals done. Wish you luck rounding up the rest this month!
Yep. I don’t think I’d want Andre’s job.
We have real sunshine today, and some of the snow is melting! Here’s to finishing the month strong. 🙂
I would hate an IT job. Mostly because I wouldn’t know what I was doing. But if I did, the incompetency of people like me would drive me crazy
Ha! I’m the incompetent person who calls tech support. I’m sure the people have laughed at me more than once.
Ahh, those lovely Moments when people who have no idea how to do your job think they can do it better than you. I had one of those this week. Poor Andre, t can really feel his frustration.
I think just about every job has that kind of thing in one way or another. It’s definitely frustrating.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! This is hilarious. As tech support for a great many novice excel users, I can totally relate. Also, your Elsa reference cracked me up. You win for making me laugh. Thank you.
LOL! I’m glad that got a laugh from an actual tech support person. 🙂 You can thank my husband for the Elsa reference. Last snowstorm, I blamed it on the groundhog (the one that attacked the mayor). Husband said, “This isn’t the groundhog. This is Elsa.”
loved that last line! And I can understand Andre’s frustration. I’m no computer expert, but I’ve lost track of the number of times my mom’s called me to ask how to do something, even if I’ve explained it before.
And, yes, the snow can please go away.
I’m just a little nervous about the snow going away. My daughter said today, “When everything floods, will they cancel school?” Even she knows there’s more than usual.
I wish I actually got helpful people like Andre when I had problems. The stories I could tell from being on the other side!
Yeah, not all tech support people are good with customers, unfortunately. I’m the person they probably dread having call, though. LOL
*hugs* on being under the weather! I’ve been battling a head cold this week, and production is way down, sigh. That’s how it goes …
I could really feel with Andre in this snippet. 🙂 Just one little thing: instead of “instructions,” I really wanted it to be “manual.” I realize, read the damn manual is a cliche by now, but I think in this case, a cliche would be your friend, since so many people can relate to it. Just a thought!
LOL, poor Andre, that last line made me laugh out loud! I don’t envy him his job at all. I’m sure some people think manuals and instruction sheets exist to pad and protect their new PCs in transit and for no other reason!
I could never do that job. Poor Andre. And instructions? Really? I mean, aren’t those more like suggestions than anything meant to take seriously. 😉