Funny morning

Despite the blah that's been a part of the last week or so, I've been meaning to share something funny that happened to me the other day at work.

Jill dropped me off one morning, and I walked into two co-workers getting set-up for a conference they were hosting. One of them asked if I could help them out, if I could go bring the group that was attending the conference from a nearby hotel to our building.

My task was simple: meet them, catch a shuttle over to my office building, deliver them to the first floor conference room for the day's proceedings that were to begin at 0830.

So, I started walking to the hotel. I arrived, waited, and watched tons of school kids converge on the lobby and load up into tour buses, ... Here's the rest in bullet form:

* Arrived at the between 0810 and 0815.
* Spoke with two different gentleman in the lobby who were directing the shuttles and assisting with guests – informed them I was expecting an 0820 shuttle and asked if the van out front was our shuttle.
* They said that van was only for Pentagon (metro?) runs, but that my shuttle might be coming soon.
* Met the group, had a few moments of awkward conversation, and tried to check on our shuttle.
* Waited for several minutes outside, sent the group back in (they were cold), spoke with one of the gentleman from the lobby again and asked if he was sure that empty van wasn’t supposed to be taking us around the corner.
* He again said no. Waited more.
* Spoke with our admin assistant on the phone and got the name of the manager who scheduled our shuttle, spoke with a third gentleman at the front desk and the two individuals from before. Stated that Manager X assured us we had a shuttle -- and it was now 10 minutes late.
* The front desk said the shuttle out front—even though it was empty—was on a schedule and couldn’t be used to take us around the corner. He consulted with the other two individuals and said that another shuttle would be pulling up in “several minutes” or “soon.”
* I kindly reminded them our shuttle was past due, and asked if they realized we were right around the corner and could take us with the waiting van and then return the van for it’s supposed schedule departure.
* I was asked to wait 2-10 minutes for another shuttle.
* I went to apologize to the group (again), and Mr. X (group leader) indicated that they had an SUV and would rather drive than wait further.
* We took their vehicle (it was an awkward ride, they wanted me to sit up front, and the group leader sat in the middle seat with two other associates) and parked on P1, entering through the back door.

Ok, so maybe it's not that funny. But it was funny that my simple task was so darn difficult. The shuttle never showed. I'm not sure what happened, but our admin assistant had a few words for the hotel and Manager X.

I thought it was kind of funny how we entered. Let me explain some more. Parking on the visitor lot on P1 meant that we had to walk down a flight of steps in a dark parking garage, cross the garage floor, go in the back elevator bay, and take an elevator up to the lobby. Of course, the elevator car that came was one that had been used recently by maintenance to move some items, so the protective cloths were still draped from the wall panels. You get off this elevator in the back of the lobby, and have to walk around, past the hallway to the cafeteria and gym and admin offices to the front lobby and front desk.

It was a surprise attack: we entered and saw the rest of my co-workers looking at the front door, probably wondering what the heck was taking me so long to deliver their special guests...

[[ In retrospect, I should have had the driver drop everyone off at the front door and then gone with just him to the garage. Oh well, live and learn. ]]

Somehow, I finally managed to bring the guests to our building--albeit 10 or so minutes late--and get them to the conference.