What a day!

Monday's are never my favorite day of the week - but I must admit - today was a doozy!  It was the much anticipated "kick off " of Nurses Week on our floor.  After many meetings and discussions the paraprofessional group of which I am one, finally came to some agreement as to how we would make the nurses we work with every day feel special.  We paired up, and my billing partner and I got Monday - today to honour the nurses.  We decided that I would do "breakfast" and she would do "lunch", so much of my weekend, including Mother's Day was devoted to baking several kinds of yummy muffins for "breakfast".

So this morning, I was organized.  I got up, got ready for work, even conned a ride from Gary so I wouldn't have to lug the baking on the bus.  I got to work about 6:50am, hauled my loot up the elevator to the 5th floor where I work.  I was the first one on the floor, so I turned on the lights, started opening exam room doors as I went down the hallway.

My office is about half way down the hall, so I opened my door, turned on the light and continued down the hallway my destination being the lunchroom at the end of the hall.  When I opened my office door, I did notice a horrible musty odor, but I didn't stop to investigate.

I set up the lunchroom with a bright yellow table covering, some spring-like napkins, arranged my muffins on some pretty plates and then headed back to my office.

I wasn't even at the doorway, and I could smell the funny odor again.  I walked into the room, threw my purse and jacket on a chair and stepped past the high file cabinets, and just stood in shock.  Sometime over the weekend the ceiling above my desk had sprung a leak.  The carpet was saturated, my computer was sitting in water on the floor, as was the power bars, my desk was wet, all the files had been wet, and dried as all the papers which were neatly piled were crinkled from water.  The doors of my overhead cabinets were warped, and the arborite was peeling from the desk and furniture and the ceiling tiles above my work space were saturated and about to fall down.

I called maintenance - but got a recording that they were not available until 7:30, so I paged the emergency maintenance, left a message, then called my manager's secretary.

If you have ever worked in a large medical center you might have discovered that the non-medical wheel rolls slowly... especially between departments.  Interdepartmental communication does not exist - well almost never.

Maintenance arrived around 9 - two  fellows with a ladder, and 20 minutes, and a lot of head scratching later, and they couldn't figure out where the water had come from.

Hello - this leaking ceiling of ours has happened (not to this extent) but it has happened every spring for 15 years.  It is coming in the wall somewhere, especially after a driving rain as we had over the weekend.  Put some gunk or puddy on it, fellas, and all will be well again.

The older if the 2 fellas suggest we move to a different office - not an option we have special cableling to our computers for working with the government - can't be moved.  So instead we decide to move my desk.

No small feat.  First we have to call e-health.  That's the computer people - because I have been told under no circumstances am I to touch the computer.  Then the desk is so large, I have to call carpentry to come and take the desk apart.  Then transport needs to be called to move the desk, then housekeeping has to be called to suck up the water on the floor.  But don't forget coffee breaks, so in reality - we stand and wait, and wait, and wait!

I'm a pretty reasonable and patient person - really I am, but OMG - this room stinks, I can't even sit down, and I'm getting pretty darn grumpy.  I haven't done a lick of work - and I'm pretty sure that I won't all day.

Oh yeah, and I have to make nice to the nurses... and really they are most sympathetic to our plight... really they are, bless their souls!

The trades come and go, they don't stick around, so back on the phone we go.  The desk is finally moved, call carpentry to put the desk back together.  Call e-health to come and connect the computer - they can't the wires won't reach, so call carpentry back to make a hole in the desk... wait, wait, wait.  He shows up, but his batteries are dead on his drill... wait wait.  Finally it's all done, and they leave, but the mess is left for us to clean up.  There is crap (sorry) everywhere, so my partner and I in our dress clothes roll up our sleeves and move file cabinets and rolling desks around and around, until we have some type of workable flow in the office.

Call housekeeping back to vacuum the sawdust off the carpet and all the dust and probably mould that we have stirred up. And we're done.

Well for now, anyway.... and look at that - it's 3pm  - time to head home... not a moment too soon, I'm thinking!