Around 2:30 today the receptionist called over to me. "Hi Erin, I've got so-and-so from DOJ on the line for you. Go ahead." Which wasn't inconcievable to me because I send things off to people at the
Department of Justice all the time. And the little voice in my said, oh fuck, I haven't been emailing the right things out or I put the wrong things in the wrong envelopes or they're looking for documents that I
didn't even know I lost and now they're calling to give me shit for it.
It was a name that I didn't recognize, so I wrote it down on a post-it note.
"Hi Erin, I'm calling from the Department of Justice," she said, "would you mind if we put you on speakerphone?"
We? Speakerphone? Had I really fucked up that badly?
When she called she had caught me trying to modifying a template for a letter, and working through a labyrinth of file directories trying to figure out where the hell I should save it. None of it was making any sense to me.
I finally found it in one of the most obscure place imaginable on the server. Once I did that, I realized that it wanted to save as a .doc, but I didn't want that so I changed it to .dot. That one little change
made the computer decide to save the file in the templates folder, instead of where I wanted it to save. I held my hand firmly over the bottom end of my phone and then told my computer to fuck itself.
"Alright, Erin," the lady continued, and she introduced the other two people in the room. More names that I didn't recognize.
"We've called to offer you term employment until March 2008."
"But I have to go back to school in September," I replied, not sure if I was supposed to be surprised or confused.
"Are you going back to full time studies? You didn't mention that on the application form."
Application form? I didn't mention anything on an application form. I explained that to her. She sounded incredulous and I sounded delusional. She began to consult with her companions, who suggested that they had the wrong Erin.
"Are you Erin Elizabeth?" she asked.
"No, I'm Erin Actually," I replied, and gave her the number for the other Erin in the office, who just happens to have a name similar enough to mine that the receptionist always mixes us up.
From then on my brain was turned into mush and I sat and stared at my computer until I went home.
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