You Just Keep Me Hanging On

Patience, in general, is one of my virtues. With people, I can explain concepts over and over, in as much depth and for as much time as it takes for them to understand. It's a good quality for an educator. However, I have no patience with situations that waste my time. When I have an appointment -- whether social, medical, or professional -- barring drastic circumstances I will always be on time. In fact, if I even start to think I may be late (or I'm not at least ten minutes early) I begin to panic. As neuroses go, it's not such a bad one to have.

Today I was scheduled for an eight-hour work shift. Two or three hours in, all the work was finished, but I hadn't received an explicit directive to log out of my shift. At 11:30, I sent an email to the person in charge of the program. At 12:30, I finally took my lunchbreak. When I returned, no reply had come in. I emailed the director of another program with the same company. He did get back to me, but told me what I already knew -- that I had to get in touch with someone in the program I was working for today. He did send me an email address for someone higher up the ladder. I forwarded my email to that person. An hour later, when I didn't get a reply and had been switching screens in the system for three hours, I logged out. I was so frustrated I was on the verge of tears, and I just couldn't stand it any longer. If I get docked half a day's pay, I don't even care.

Meanwhile, I was waiting for my contractor to show up to fix my dryer. (He actually knocked on the door just as I started to write this, around 3:30.) He had called at 11:30 this morning and said he was going to get the required parts and be right over. Since I was supposed to be working anyway, waiting wasn't a big deal -- initially. But once I logged off I had so many things I could have been doing. Instead, I had to stay home, inside, waiting for him to knock on the door. I did manage, in between navigating screens and waiting for the knock, to go through items, some of which I'll store and others I'll donate.

My schedule is completely clear for the next two days, so I'll do nothing but clean my house and get things together for my trip. I am tired, and it's been a day of frustration. I don't like to be left hanging.