Early bird
My first thought as my eyes crack open to my alarm is, “Ughhhhhhh, noooooooo.”
I never have meetings before 9am. My company is very respectful, for the most part, of us working 9-5. Well, more so than that, my boss is great in the sense that as long as I get my stuff done, he doesn’t really care when I do it. Traveling? Taking a walk? Going to the doctor at 2pm? Great. Who cares, good for you, but have those ad lobs ready for the meeting tomorrow.
But I’m on a new team within my agency due to me needing to cover for a maternity leave and, unfortunately, they are big believers in getting a jump on the day. Early.
So here I am, cursing my alarm.
(Also, in really quick defense of myself, I’m usually an early-riser, but the last week has taken its toll. Going from Connecticut to Miami for a bachelorette to Chicago for one night to Arkansas for a week-long work trip back to Chicago to my sister and her 5 friends coming into town and staying with me … really takes a lot out of a girl. It’s me, I’m the girl. So 7:30 is not USUALLY early for me. But this week? Yeah. No thank you.)
At 7:45, I am finally able to convince myself to get out of bed. I look out the window and, to my horror, it has snowed. And my apartment heat is off. Well, that explains part of the reason why getting out of my beautiful, warm bed was so unappealing. I grumble my way over to the thermostat, and then head to the bathroom for a speedy teeth-brush, face-wash, hair-comb. It’s day 3 for my hair, aka hair wash day, so there’s less combing that goes on and more throwing it up into a bun on the top of my head. In other words, I look amazing.
7:59, I open my computer from my seat on my very comfortable couch (my drawing stuff is all over my desk, plus, hello, I’m tired, so couch it is) and click into the zoom link.
The site crashes.
I click the link again.
The site crashes.
8:00am. Crap.
“Is this link working for you??” I furiously type out to my teammate.
“Yep.” He sends me the link from his side of things.
Still not working.
8:01am. SUGAR.
I quit my Google Chrome. Maybe a hard refresh will do the trick. I click the zoom link again.
Slowly, soooo slowly, the page reopens and zoom pops up. Ahhh. Thank goodness. 8:02am. Not terrible.
I join the audio just in time to hear my boss say, “Now that I’m saying all of this amazing stuff about her, I’m realizing this might be a little uncomfortable. Is she on?”
“Yep!” Someone else responds. “Looks like she just joined.”
Ohmygod. Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod. There are three names that I have never seen before. This call is CLIENT FACING????? And I am being INTRODUCED????????? I RUN to my desk with my laptop. THROW papers onto the ground. FUMBLE for the chord to the light, turning it on.
I turn on my mic. “Are you talking about me??”
He laughs. “I am! Everyone meet Larkin, she’ll be filling in for Ashton!”
Ohmyfreakinggod. I turn my camera on so they can see me in all my messy bun glory, and then realize that my standing desk is EXTREMELY low - I was drawing!!!! “It’s so great to meet you all!” I say while pressing the ‘up’ button of my desk. It is not quiet.
To add to the awkwardness, no one turns on their mics. I am met with barely-there soft smiles and absolute dead silence. I go back on mute as my desk slowly but surely continues to rise.
Needless to say, I will be putting on some makeup and maybe blowdrying my hair for next week’s 7am call with them. Second impressions are what count, anyway… right??
