with my own coffee bar

[alenxa_classic]

Friday at my workplace is a suck day because it officially ends at 3 pm, thus neatly preventing anyone from getting any work done. I, lucky person that I am, always end up staying until later because the car is at kelson's workplace with him, and therefore I couldn't go anywhere even if I did have a license. On the most recent Friday of Suck, he called at about 6 and said he was wrapping stuff up and should be leaving about 6:30. I, being bored and cranky, said I was going to walk to the local Starbucks to wait for him. This is about a 7-minute walk with cooperative traffic lights and 10 if they're obstinate. Used to do it every night until I figured out how much money my lattes were eating.

So I got there about 6:15 and got an iced latte. I'd been looking forward to having some down time to write or comic or something, but found myself staring at a blank page or two. And freezing. I zoned on my Palm game of Shisen-Sho for a while and when I looked up it was 7 and I was not only freezing but starving. And no Kelson. I was reluctant to eat anything, not knowing if he'd walk in the door and want to go to dinner just as I bought a huge brownie or something. I did realize that the freezing part was due to sitting under the vent (a predisposition I've decided is genetic, maternally heritable), and moved to the front of the store.

At 7:15, I bought a blueberry oat bar. Was good.

At 7:45, I called Kelson and left a message. "Hi.....I'm.....still in the Starbucks......did the freeway, like, break?"

At 8, he called me. Seems he'd been shutting stuff down at 7:30 (......) and accidentally shut off something that didn't come back up. So he'd been doing CPR (computer processor resuscitation) for the last half-hour, with no end yet in sight. I was really pissed by this time and was very short with him, and when I hung up I immediately started calling people.

zehntaur was in Pasadena. wayens was at Anime Expo, waiting for the music videos to start. andrea_wot didn't pick up. Neither did Kelson's parents. I left both of them pathetic messages, then called my sister, who didn't pick up either. (Turns out she was at the Vans Warped Tour.) I finally called my mom, who was actually there, and talked for about 10 minutes. Then Kelson called me back and said he should be getting there in 15-30 minutes. It was 8:30.

Kelson's mom called me back about 8:40 and said they could come get me if he had another emergency. Fortunately, he arrived. At 9. I was too exhausted to be mad.

It could have been worse. I could have had to walk down the street to the hotel. Or been calling the baristas by name.....

Comments

[wayens.livejournal.com]

(hug) So that's what happened. Couldn't make out your voice much except a bit puzzled why you said sorry. You are not pathetic. Never. Stronger in constitution than many of us here I'd gather. (shoots particle ray at Friday of Suck, major damage [you know how high I could roll] ;p)

[maldis.livejournal.com]

When I arrived in PA this time, Acacia was stuck teaching a class, so we had prearranged for her assistant to pick me up at the airport, but when I arrived I discovered the phone number I had for him on my cell phone was wrong, and I couldn't call to interrupt Acacia's lecture, so I had a pretty nasty panic for a while. Fortunately the assistant had my phone number correct. . .