Friday, September 25, 2009

Why I suck at working from home

With both of the boys sick, I have had to work from home. For the most part it was ok. I can do most of my work from a laptop with an internet connection and a phone. Much of what I do each day is participate in meetings. Today was no exception. Like a bad mother working from home with sick children, I rely heavily on TV and DVDs to entertain the patients while I work. It keeps them mostly quiet and I can get stuff done while they relax on their beds we've made on the sofa. I mute the phone except when I talk to keep the background noise and parenting comments from interrupting the meeting. It more or less works.
So today, with both boys home, I was a bit smug about just how productive I was able to be. I got my tasks done, attended meetings and made calls. Sure I was also running to the kitchen for water and juice, keeping the DVDs going, administering medications, but it was more or less working, no matter how exhausted I was feeling. One of my last meetings of the day was a long planning meeting. It took an eternity, or at least hours. During this meeting Big Dog was taking a nap, and Little Dog, my exhibitionist, was roaming the room playing with toys pantless. Fine, he was happy and quiet. No big deal. Near the end of the meeting I got a call from Mr. Dog on the other line. I switched over, chatted briefly then switched back to the meeting. When I looked up I noticed that Little Dog had a tent pole with the elasticized shock cord wrapped around his toe. He looked uncomfortable, but was working on getting the restraint off his own toe. I just watched. A moment later he'd freed his foot and was looking at another part of his anatomy. When he made a move toward that appendage, I had to speak up.
"Don't do that, Little Dog," I said firmly but in a calm voice.
"Why?" he challenged.
"Because you might hurt yourself."
"But I just tied up my toe!"
"Yeah, but don't do that to your penis," I advised. Then I noticed my phone wasn't on mute.
A second later and instant message from another manager popped up on my laptop. It simply read, "We can hear you."
And that about sums up my day.

5 comments:

abi said...

from one conference call attending working mom to another... this is my worst work nightmare. Thanks for sharing. : )

geekymummy said...

Ha ha ha ha! Awesome. I'm in a meeting right now and almost lost it. This is a story that must be shared with all of his future girlfriends! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I love it! I too laughed out loud.

K

Christi Ciani said...

OMG Lady! Aw, and you were being so good at doing everything, too! I hate when that happens. Almost every time I am "smug" as you call it, about getting it all right, it's like something goes wrong. I am so sorry for that feeling you had :) I can't even imagine what you must've felt as soon as you realized you weren't muted.

chihuahua5 said...

ha ha!!! i love this and yet my worst nightmare that the mute button doesn't work...even if turned on :)

also glad little dog's penis is intact!!!

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