I'm happy when I'm stressing

I definitely broke the seal on something this weekend. I've never set foot in the office between Friday evening and Monday morning before. However, I thought I'd take twenty minutes this Saturday to rearrange a cabinet when my actions would least affect anyone else... this was the start of a silly sequence of office-related antics:

• The rearrangement of the cabinet was a simple screwdriver job, but seemed to coincide with one of my colleagues having trouble getting email.
• A few cursory checks and he was told to try again; there was nothing wrong with the system.
• Soon it transpired that he could not access any of the network.
• Then it became clear that other machines on his floor were also having trouble.
• Then I discovered that a unit, which can never go wrong, had gone wrong.
• After a frantic temporary replacement job was finished, I was left to lock up.
• I have keys, I have the alarm code... I did not remember quite the precise manner of using them.
• I phoned a friend. He chose option D and it took me up to £64,000.
• Having returned later to check that I'd remembered to lock the door, I thought my weekend's visits to the office would be over for a long time.
• On the way home, I realised that there was still a third of the network down - I arranged a fix, first thing Monday morning.
• On Sunday lunchtime, just after my partner had returned with the car from her shopping trip, ADT rang.
• The burglar alarm at the office was going off and I'm the designated keyholder.
• Having rushed to work like a mad fool, I got into the building to find it was a false alarm.
• I could not reactivate the alarm.
• I rang the alarm company, who refused to reset it - because it was a false alarm and the police don't like multiple false calls.
• I persuaded them to reset most of the alarm and then I went home...

I've not been called back to the office yet. However, it's amazing. After never having set foot in the office on the weekend, I've been there three times this weekend. I've also witnessed the impossible happen (network problem) and I've been used as keyholder - first time ever. But, here's the weird stuff.

• Had I not been in the office, my colleague would never have got the email he'd been waiting for when he went into the office on Saturday.
• Had I not fixed the network problem, two thirds of the network would be down without explanation. Instead, one third is down, there's a warning to everyone and someone is already armed with the fix for first thing Monday.
• Had I not needed to fix the network, I would have left before my colleagues and they would have locked up.
• Had I not had to lock up, I would not have had to learn (the hard way) how to use the alarm.
• Had I not known how to use the alarm, I would have been truly ****ed when it came to working out what was wrong and how to get it all reset.

Life is truly a strange and mystical thing!

03 February 2002
Ashley Frieze