No good, very bad day

Have you ever had that day where you wake up early, make it to work with plenty of time to prep for your 8am meeting, and then it all starts to go to down the drain? For those of you who know me, you know that I am NOT a morning person, I set 17 alarms in the morning, snooze them all and then wake up in a panic. Yes, I know I should be better at waking up with my alarm but its a constant problem.

If I have something (a meeting, a flight, etc.) earlier than my normal time to wake up, I usually don't sleep very well. I wake up on the hour every hour scared that I am going to oversleep. That was Thursday night for me, I knew I had a very important meeting at 8am on Friday and needed to be into work early to make sure I had adequate time to prepare. I set all my alarms and attempt to fall asleep - which is never easy to do as I am always worried - my mind starts to wander and the next thing you know I am thinking about what life is going to be like at 70. Will I be a hip ol' granny, where will I live, what countries will be left on my bucket list. All of which MUST be answered before I sleep -- why?! why does this happen?!

Friday morning comes and I think because I am so nervous about being late, I pop of out bed and start my morning routine. I arrive at work about 7:30am with plenty of time to review my emails and prep for the meeting. So, a little bit about my current work situation -- I've been working on a project for my client in Brazil since December of 2016 - the government requires for automotive financing are very complex in Brazil, so it's taking a bit longer than expected. We had a deadline to give the client a release by COB on Friday, so that means this release is one of my top priorities for the day. In addition I switched roles within the company in May of 2019 with the understanding that I would remain on my Brazil project until completion. It just so happens that this weekend we are going LIVE with the client that I am responsible for with my new role. This client is the largest client my company has ever had, which means all eyes are on the success of this project. It also happens that my co-worker has taken the day off, which means all of her clients are now looking to me for guidance. I'd like to say this is not typical day for me but I'd be lying. I normally juggle a lot of tasks, which may or may not be a good thing. For those of you who perform a juggling act on a daily basis you know that throughout the day you are answering questions left and right - there is really NO time to do your job because you are assisting others. Which again is not a bad thing.

I was trying to organize a couple things in preparation for Monday, when I get an email from the client -- "Meghan, who is looking at this issue, who touched our production environment, and what is your phone number?" hmm, woah. I am not prepared to answer any of these. Questions are coming at me via chat, email, and people standing at my desk - Lord, help me. I decided I needed a little break to take a look my coworkers kid's Halloween costume - I grab my phone attempt to open Instagram and my phone starts to freak out. The screen immediately goes black and I am unable to close the app or navigate to the home screen. I just put the phone down and get back to work, so much for a mini break. About an hour goes by and I pick back up my phone, nothing has changed, I still can't do anything with it. So I start to hold down a couple buttons to force a manual restart, I try once...nothing, I try again...nothing. All of a sudden I notice that in the top left of my iPhone the clock is now surrounded by a red bubble -- I start to panic, this is not good. I don't know what it means but it can't be good. Then I start to hear someone speaking to me, "911, what's your emergency, what's your address?" Holy crap! I quickly tell the operator that "this is not an emergency, I am safe, I am not in danger, and my phone freaked out and called on accident." She thanks me for remaining on the phone and letting her know I am safe and then proceeds to hang up (which is perfect for me as I still cannot do anything on this STUPID phone). Okay, now I am really flustered. Flustered because I have too many people asking me questions and I don't have time to think and VERY flustered because 911 just called me. AHHHHHHH! It just so happens that my coworker who sits next to me is very tech and said he would help try to unlock my phone. I needed a break, to keep my sanity, I needed to go to lunch so off I went!

Decided that a quick lunch would do as I still had so much of my own work to do, found myself in the Wendy's drive through. Typically, I would enjoy my lunch inside but decided it was best to just get back to the office. I drive back to the office, eat my lunch in the car, immediately I feel a sense of urgency to go back inside as my phone is probably making some loud alert sounds and I am the only one who knows my password. I rush back inside, open the office door and am greeted with "everyone is worried about you, call your mother". It doesn't register with me what is happening, so I make my way to my desk where someone is waiting for me, great nothing has changed, need more of a break. I mosey over to my coworkers desk to help answer his question when my old boss looks at me and says "Meghan, did you call your mom? She is VERY worried about you?" Again at this point it doesn't register with me why my mom would be worried, I don't understand. I go to the reception area to call my mom - I still can't access my phone, it's still black. Call mom, tell her not to panic, I am fine and begin to ask questions about why she thinks something is wrong.

Remember earlier when I said my clock bubble turned red? Well it is because SOS mode had kicked in and sent a message to my emergency contacts, my mom and dad. My mom tried calling me to make sure I was okay, only to get my voicemail. Once she should get a hold of me via text or voice she decided to text my old boss. (Side note: Not exactly sure when I gave my mom his phone number, but I guess it came in handy.) When she didn't get a response from him via text she decided to give him a call to just make sure I was okay. I just want to mention here that the entire time I was in the office after lunch when people were telling me my mom was worried, they FAILED to mention that my mother had called and someone had spoken to her. That is RELEVANT and IMPORTANT information people. How could they forget that pivotal piece of information?!

Reassured my mother that I was safe and it was just a technology issue - picked up my phone back at my desk and wouldn't you know... the screen was just fine. It was no longer black and I was able to navigate through and turn OFF the SOS mode. Here is where I discovered that I had both my mother and father listed as emergency contacts and realized that my father DID NOT call me...was he not worried about me?! What the heck, dad?!

The rest of the day was less eventful and even turned around a bit. I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure followed by a lovely dinner out with friends, ending the night with some of my favorite things ever...board games. Man, I love a good board game!

Couple things I learned today...

1) it is good to have your SOS set up in the event of an emergency... IT WORKS

2) Sharing your work number with your parents is a good thing, only slightly embarrassing

3) I am in need of more personal time

4) it's very important to surround yourself with good friends

5) Board games are life!