I Lied

I love my job! I'm good at my job! I keep thinking if I say that often enough or to enough people, I will start believing it. Maybe it will even come true. For now though, it's a big fat lie and it's been that way for well over a year now.

Let me tell you about my last week on the job. Have I mentioned lately that I love my job?

I was on this audit by myself this week. That means I had to fly to Chicago, pick up the rental car, and find my way around, alone. All week. Backing up just a little, I am also responsible for making my own airline reservations and my own hotel reservations. We have a person at corporate to take care of those kinds of things, but my boss wants us to put these charges on our own credit cards, because it comes out cheaper, thus keeping our branch's expenses down. Yeah. Ok. Works for me.

Anyway, I'm not going in to how many times I was lost this week. Lost, turned around, misplaced, I don't care what you call it. I was rarely where I was supposed to be, or where I thought I was.

Let's go now to this past Friday. Before I left the hotel in the morning, I packed up my hotel room and checked out. Everything I have is now in the back of my rental car, which is scheduled to be turned in by 2:00 p.m. The first thing I do when I get on site on Friday is check my e-mail. In my in box should be an e-mail from Continental Airlines, stating that I could check in for my flight at anytime over the internet. Guess what. There was no e-mail from Continental.

So, I figured this was an oversight on their part. After all, my flight is in about eight hours, and I can check in anytime within 24 hours. It's all good. I went to Continental.com and put in my confirmation number, and clicked the button that says "check in". An error message popped up. What did it say, you ask? It said that this is not a valid instruction since my flight is more than 24 hours away. Um, excuse me? It's about 8:00 a.m. and my flight is at 3:55 p.m. That is WELL inside of the 24 hour rule. What's up with that?

I dug through my bag for my receipt from when I purchased my ticket two weeks prior. I tried to have Ron scan my receipt to add to this blog, but for some reason, when I upload it, it's so small it's not legible. Yeah, another one of my awesome qualities. I'm also a dumbass. But I digress. If I could upload a legible receipt, it would show:

Leaving Cleveland to O'Hare - Mon 06FEB06
Returning O'Hare to Cleveland - Fri 10MAR06

Anyone see a problem with that? Now I don't know my February from my March. So here I am, all alone, no hotel room, and 337.59 miles away from home. This was way more than I could take.

I found an empty office and called Continental. I kept pressing buttons, following the the automated attendant's directions to reach a "specialist in domestic travel reservations". Luckily, I reached Sharon in Florida. I explained to her that I am a dumbass, I told her what I did, and I begged her to help me find my way home, and not make me wait a month. Then I did what I do best. I started to cry. My new best friend, Sharon, not only told me she would get me home, but she promised to get me home that same day. Somehow, on the same flight I take every week, on the same flight that is full every single week, she found me a seat. To top it all off, she only charged me an additional $14.50 to change my ticket. No extra fee for flying out the same day. No customary $100.00 change fee. $14.50 and I came home on the same flight I should have, if I wasn't such an idiot.

Now, barring winning the lottery or having a cement truck run me over, I have to go back on Monday and do it all over again.

I love my job! I'm really good at it! And you know what? Traveling is my absolute favorite part!