Urgent Dose Of Comedy Needed

I laugh when I remember it. It's one of those delightful little
memories that make me smile at in-opportune moments.

Two weeks and ago, coworker (partner in crime) Alli and I were working
writing and optimizing a section of pages for dog kennels. It's a
hard topic (in the SEO world) to work with. Pet topics are extremely
competitive. We'd been pulling our hair out over it for four
consecutive days and it was finally the Thursday before Christmas
break. Several links were broken, our affiliates would answer their
phones, and we were trying to discipher HTML code we didn't really
understand. On top of that, I'd gotten a rather depressing letter
from an exboyfriend the night before.

"You look comatose Sophie!" Alli said. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, just sleepy," I said.

"Sure, you are. Men are like bracelets Sophie," replied Alli.. "Take
them off like an accessory when they're not good for you. Do we need
to go over this again?"

Yawn. I love Alli's self-esteem support. So good for me. But it was
only 11 a.m.. If I curled up under my desk would anyone really
notice? Just for a few minutes...

I listened to O-Space-Man and the Eagle throwing accolades at each
other. "Isn't it great? Yes, it's great! The site has potential!
We'll do it! What did you say? You love everything about it? Well,
it's all about to leap of the ground and make millions...." Yadda,
yadda yadda....I fazed out.

"You need some coffee, right now," Alli said, bringing me back into the room.

"Ok," I agreed. Dunkin Doughnuts is always a good idea. Not much a
vanilla latte can't fix.

Around 2 p.m. two more things broke in our affiliate section and I
started to watch the clock and think about my weekend. I dropped Alli
a rolled up post it "Want to fly the coop and go see a movie?"

A minute later she threw a rolled up status report on my desk,
"Sophie, I think you need to recheck those numbers," she said.

I looked down at the paper and saw the purple post-it stuck on it which said,
"Absolutely. What's the plan? We need an exit strategy."

For a half and hour we slipped each other post-it notes stuck into
books, cough drop boxes, empty mugs and the like. It is so much fun
to pass around secret notes...even when we could have just stepped
into the bathroom. Covert operations always heighten the excitement.

After consulting, researching movie times, and crafting an exit plan,
I went into Alli's office and loudly made a call to my "mechanic"
about needing to drop my car off "BEFORE FIVE O'CLOCK," as luck would
have it. "You mean you're not open ALL weekend, or Friday?!? You
mean I MUST drop it off TODAY."

Click, hang up the phone. The only way to make it to the mechanic's
before five, was to leave at four o'clock. (The movie started at
4:35.) Everyone around the office hears about my car's incessantly
trips to the mechanic on a regular basis, so it was no surprise.
Everyone jokes about it having a chronic bodyshop addiction. I'm
always dragging it back to the bodyshop for some reason or other.
Accident magnet I call it.

"Alli, bad news, can I ask you a huge favor? I need to get to my
mechanic's RIGHT NOW."

"Let's see if the Eagle will let you."

"Dear boss, bad news, I've got to drop off my car...can we make up the
time on Monday? It'll be no problem for us to stay an extra hour
Monday afternoon," I implored.

"As long as the Dog Kennel page is done Monday A.M."

"Oh, no problem AT ALL!" I assured.

And off we went at ten minutes to 4 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon. It
felt like getting out of jail. We bought a big popcorn and sat in one
of our favorite comedies, laughing our hearts out. There was
something so gleeful and joyous about it. :) Leaving work to go to a
movie...(a film which I had actually already seen twice.)

I did drop off my car at the mechanic's, a little later on. We made
up the time at work on Monday, most of it. And yes, the Dog Kennel
page went up on time.