The Game

Looks like I missed work for the day.

Having misread the schedule during my previous shift on the Friday of last week, I was sitting quietly on my computer in my Medal of Honor pajamas, unshaved and unshowered, watching Ram Dass rants on LSD trips and listening to what is apparently the 'original' and 'real' kind of Dubstep, Phaeleh's The Cold In You, when I got an unexpected call from my boss.

Sounding perturbed, probably due to the fact that I'm still a 'rookie in training' and I had failed to show up for work, he told me that I apparently worked today, and not tomorrow as I had originally believed.
Turns out, I read the schedule... which was strangely unlabeled in terms of days... as if it started on Mondays, when in fact, the weekly schedules start on Sundays, causing me to be a day ahead. Checking bus times, I scrambled out of my seat and upstairs, coffee in hand, to shower as fast as humanly possible in order to catch the next bus which was leaving in 12 minutes.

There was no way I was going to show up like I was, having not showered nor shaven for 2 days straight. I had to at least make an attempt at blitzing hygiene; so I stripped down, stuck my head in the shower, lathered my hair, rinsed it, realized I hadn't grabbed a towel, bolted it downstairs, naked and wet, dripping water like the blood of an injured horror movie protagonist who, being the last alive, had finally managed to get hurt and was now making an attempt to limp to safety.

Drying my hair as I ran back up the stairs with a towel in hand, I checked the clock to see I had 4 minutes to dress, grab the rest of my things, shave, and get out the door.
Instead, I decided to take a bit of a leap and simply call my boss.

Apologizing profusely, I explained my mistake and how there was no way I was going to make the next bus, and would instead have to wait an hour before I could head to work. I attempted to make amends and see if there was any shift I could fill instead tomorrow, but apparently, there had been a trainer organized to work with me this shift and therefore it would just be better if I didn't worry about making it today and instead just showed up at my next scheduled shift on Thursday.

Still apologizing profusely yet in a calm, 'oh-well-I-made-an-honest-mistake' demeanor, I said that worked for me, and bid my boss a friendly farewell before I hung up and then began to chuckle a bit.
Although I thought it was a shame I had missed the shift, both in terms of money and making sure my bosses know I'm actually quite a responsible young man, I didn't feel bad about it. It really had been nothing more than an honest mistake, whereas if this exact same scenario had panned itself out 2 months prior, I would have felt a sort of dead-weight fuck-up causing my stomach to tie itself in endless knots. But this time around, I realized that, although I had inadvertently broken the rules, it wasn't such a terrible thing because all I'm doing.. all any of us are doing as part of any society anywhere in the world.. is playing a strange, intricate game. And although breaking the rules and making mistakes are no way to earn a high-score, you lose nothing but a few symbolic points in the process of rule breaking and mistake making. Sometimes, if you're skilled enough and know how to play the game well, rule breaking or, in some cases, rule making, can lead to incredible success or, in keeping with the metaphor or points and games, lead to an incredibly high-score.

However, I'm going to hope this is only a first strike, and that I won't be fired over it. And in keeping with playing the game correctly, I'm going to make sure I don't make the same mistake twice.

Since I'm missing work, I may very well get around to writing.. or, at the very least, starting.. a brand-new full-fledged article for my blog. The first in a very long time.

So keep your eyes peeled! It's a Friendly Inferno! is back, baby.