Hell

I had a friend when I was in undergrad who used to say that my hometown "isn't hell, but I can see hell from here."

That, folks, is how I felt about my workplace today.

I seemed to be the only idiot who decided to turn up to work. The secretary took most of the day off at a doctor's appointment. That left me in charge of the door, all the voicemail and the never-ending line of disadvantaged fellows seeking sandwiches. The custodian took his regular day off, which left me in charge of the doors and the lights and the set up of the hall for a major event we were hosting. The associate was sick -- so sick that he ended up in the ER by the end of the day; he was the one who volunteered me to host the major event without my consent. The pastor, who was around sporadically, left me to set up the tables -- one of the heaviest tables I have ever encountered in my life included), the chairs, all of the platters of food, and run absolutely everything else in the parish while he went off to have lunch with some parishioners. I ended up going home for lunch and having to change because I stunk to high hell from all of the physical labour. (Notice the emerging 'hell' theme...)

The pastor promised he would be around to set up the coffee, but ten minutes before people started rolling in the doors, there was no sign of him. I started to have a mini-seizure and called on the secretary, who had arrived by then, for help before I had a complete breakdown. She had just started to help when the pastor arrived, told me to calm down (I could have smacked him right then) and said we had lots of time, no one would be on time. Of course, they all arrived earlier than on time and the coffee was just being brewed. Alas, it did all work out -- most had wine while they were waiting -- and the pastor did help me clean up, but I ended up breaking my necklace in the process.

He initially offered me some food while we were in the hall to take home since half of them wouldn't be home for dinner, but then sent me away before any food was procured in the kitchen. So, I'm sitting here with my broken necklace and a bowl of soggy Alphabits, hoping to hell my weekend isn't as bad as today was.