Day Two Hundred Fifty-Eight

I don't need to tell you that I hate The Damn Elf™. I've said it before and, really, that's one thing I think all adults can unite around. The Damn Elf is full of suck.

But ... 2020. It feels like so many things have been taken from our kids, and it seems really freakin' selfish for me to take away The Damn Elf now of all times. We could all use a little extra magic this year. Mila especially needs a little magic. She's getting by in this weird world, but she's an extrovert. She definitely misses her people.

So. Magic.

I'm so bad at Elf Magic. I have forgotten to do my job every single night so far.

But, no worries! Mila is so invested in the magic, she keeps giving me ways to work around my own stupidity! I have sent her back to bed to grab a stuffed animal as I frantically grabbed the dumb thing. I never send her back to find stuffed animals. Like, never. She should have instantly been suspicious, but magic! Magic is great! There was another time that I hid the dumb thing behind my back as I walked down the stairs while holding Mila's hand and then shoved it on a table after I was all, "Oh, is the Elf over there?" and pointed in the opposite direction.

We will not be discussing the number of times that I have jumped out of bed in the middle of the night to move it. It's only been a week since the thing came out to lurk, but I am an overachiever when it comes to screwing up the Elf.

Twenty-two more days. I can't possibly screw it up all twenty-two days that are remaining. Or can I?

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Seven

Well ... huh. Y'all really do like to prove me wrong, don't you?

About a month ago, I predicted that Christmas Crazy would top out at around $5000 - half the "usual" total. There are lots of reasons that I thought we couldn't possibly reach much more than that. A global pandemic is certainly one aspect, but there's also the part where I barely put any effort into this space anymore. Are there people still reading? Because I'm not so sure.

Really. I'm not sure. I uninstalled analytics a few years ago because the code was compromised and some very not cool ads were sneaking in through that door. It was easier to uninstall than to fix and I never reinstalled anything. Because why would I? Whether two people read or two hundred, it's irrelevant. And I pretty much assume it's two people. Always.

But then comes Christmas Crazy and somehow y'all manage to show up and make sure a whole bunch of kids end up having a little joy just in time for the holidays. As of right now, we're at over $6400 worth of joy, which is absolutely amazing as far as I'm concerned.

But! We already know I'm selfish. Let's move that number to $7000, please. Or maybe $8000? I'm done pretending i know what's possible. So, surprise me.

Here's the Amazon wish list.

And here's the Paypal link.

We're going to wrap this whole thing up in the next week, so bring it on.

Day Two Hundred Fifty-Six

There has been a whole hell of a lot going on in the world I don't talk about in this space, but there's one tiny piece of it that just keeps sticking with me. So, reader, sit back and prepare to be bored by a story from that grown-up world I exist in for a whole bunch of hours every day.

For those who don't know, I'm a Product Manager at a Pittsburgh manufacturing company. Or, at least I am for another week. That's a separate story, but I'm moving on from the place that I've been very happy for the past five years because ... a whole hell of a lot has been going on. It's time to move in a new direction.

ANYWAY.

Basically I'm responsible for $200 million in revenues as I have total and complete ownership over several product lines. Like I said, I pretend to be a grown-up sometimes. One of those product lines had a little oopsie earlier this year.

Okay, a big oopsie. It wasn't a "people will die" sort of oopsie, which is entirely possible because WHO THE HELL ALLOWED ME TO BE A GROWN-UP, but it was an expensive oopsie. It will take months to fix, though it will have absolutely no impact on anyone outside of the place I work because sometimes you get lucky like that.

When something like that occurs, the normal course of action is to do a little root cause analysis and blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, one person made a mistake and that mistake escaped. There are systems in place that should have been prevented it from escaping and, thus, as far as I'm concerned, it's evvvvverrrrybody's fault. Including mine. That's how I see it. I should have asked the question that led to the mistake getting caught and the engineer should not have made the mistake and the quality team should have had test cases to prevent the mistake from escaping and, look, we all had a chance to do better.

And we will next time.

All of that is exactly the attitude that I've had since the exact moment when we figured out what had happened. I had that attitude even as I jumped over processes that are supposed to slow down a knee-jerk reaction because hooboy. I absolutely did walk over to an engineer and say, "TAKE. IT. DOWN. NOW. ... I'll go start on the official process in a minute." Processes are great, but acting fast is sometimes greater.

ANYWAY. As all of this was going down and for the weeks that followed, I swear I was on suicide watch for the engineer who made the mistake. That person is so very customer-focused and wants very much so to do the best job possible at all times. They were legit heartbroken that the mistake was made. I was all, "Mistakes happen. It won't happen again. We've got work to do, so let's move on." It became my job to assure that person that it wasn't the end of the world.

Fast forward several months ... people are not amused that I'm moving on to a new role with a new company. Everyone understands because SO MUCH GOING ON, but apparently I don't suck at my job? That's what I hear, anyway. But THAT person. The one that made the mistake. That is the person who is taking the news the hardest.

I had the privilege of having someone passionately explain how appreciative they were that I stood by them even when a mistake was made. It was a lot and I'm really grateful for the feedback.

But.

BUT.

Why the hell do we allow a world to exist where someone feels appreciative because a co-worker stood by them when they made a mistake? Because we should all be like that. Always. Mistakes happen. Let's be forgiving, please.

For real, go be forgiving tomorrow. You just never know when that will be the thing that means the most to someone.