Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Drama Queen

As I have posted (numerous times), Partner #3 likes to drive me insane. He routinely crashes his computer, losing things 10 minutes after I hand them to him and calls me continuously through-out the day. He calls me on Saturday mornings and afternoons, 5 minutes after I leave the office, 5 minutes before I arrive at the office in the morning and other random times during my life. He calls with impossible projects, emergency tasks (life-sustaining to him, normal for others) and sometimes he's driving somewhere, gets bored, runs out of people to call and decides to call me and "chat". This would be fine if I wasn't in the middle of the 67 earth shattering projects that he asked me to do 3 calls ago. When he is in the office, he calls my extension endlessly and makes a zillion trips to my office. If I'm not in there, he will hunt me down.

He is a brilliant, successful, very sweet man but absolutely, most completely, in every way possible, totally maniacal. I spend everyday in a ball of anxiety....in panic....wondering what will blow up next. Always on the verge of an ulcer, I'm surprised I'm not doing shots of Pepto with my coffee.

He calls me when he's on vacation.....at least 4-5 calls during the morning of the first day. Then, the calls taper off to one every 3-4 hours. It doesn't matter if he's on top of a mountain preparing to ski down or lying on the beach. If he can get 1 bar of a wireless signal, he'll call me:

"I was just thinking....." "Could you find out....." "Call so-'n-so and tell them...." "Find this file, copy it and send it to...." "Do you know....?" "Have I....?" "Where is....?" "I need/want .....etc.

This doesn't even begin to explain the barrage of emails that flood my inbox through-out the day as well as the dozens of text messages.

Have you seen "The Devil Wears Prada"? That is my life. But without the free clothes and trip to Paris.

Just last week he went on a mini-vacation. So that means I get a "mini-break." The day before he departed, we spoke up until I left that evening and even on my ride home. Major projects had been completed that day and we had to finalize the final details....17 times. After that, he was gone!! I was free....well....sorta.

The next day, I came into the office expecting 3-4 voicemail messages and umpteen emails from him time stamped during the wee hours. But, there was nothing. My voicemail light was dark and my inbox was filled with the usual smut and assorted messages from the other associates. Nothing from Partner 3.

By 11 am, I was a bit nervous. No emails, no phone calls....not even a text. Had his plane been hijacked? Was he stuck on a layover some where with no wireless signal? Even then, he probably would chance a germy pay phone just to tell me about his experience.

At 1 pm, nervousness had turned to worried and utter panic. I was convinced that he was mortally wounded, lying in a ditch without a wireless signal. Nothing short of death would keep him from calling in to torment me.

At 4 pm, I had an epiphany! I have become addicted to this drama. I was so use to be being on the edge every moment of every day that without the constant adrenaline rush I was freaking out. I've never thought of myself as a drama queen, but here I was wondering where my daily anxiety shot was.

Needless to say he is back in the office this week and has returned to making my life hell. Thank God! Those 4 days without him made me crazy! I would rather know when I'm going to be tortured then sit and wonder where it is.

7 comments:

  1. I can't imagine how annoying that would be. He would drive me insane! I wouldn't answer the phone EVER.

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  2. I'm laughing here.
    You are right, the wait is worse than the real thing. Just like in horror movies.

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  3. How come that cheesey 80's metal balad "Don't know what cha got, til it's gone" just popped into my head?

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  4. Lola: If I don't answer it, he'll call Fancy Pants and hunt me down!

    That damn expat: I should get my own theme music.

    Kat: If I left him, he would implode.....hmmmm food for thought!

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  5. That's hilarious that you can't relax unless you're stressed out over his antics. I'm the same way over certain things... like having the damn kids gone for the weekend. I spend the entire time worrying about what they're up to instead of relaxing. Glad you got your Tasmanian Partner back.

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  6. Casey: It is a sickness! When he's gone I freak out....when he's here...I freak out. The man is the devil!

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  7. It's a good thing I don't have your number, 'cause I'd be pestering you as much as possible now because I know how much you need that.

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