serving paul martin

so this morning is my first saturday shift in the office all by me-self. [my boss and coworkers all gave me about 3 phone numbers each in case i needed anything]
on a normal saturday, my tasks would be pretty simple- print some files, send some emails, enter in the paper production times, report complaints or missed paper deliveries to the carrier agents, update hotel draw numbers, etc. etc.

but today however.. being my first day on alone, of course murphy's law decides to kick in.

-first one of the ottawa carriers locked his keys inside his car and took 45 mins to get them out, meaning his route was going to be about an hour late.. so i have to wake up my dear hungover coworker tanya to find out how to put out an alert message on his route.

-then the delta hotel in newfoundland calls in a panick because they were supposed to have gotten 300 papers and non of them arrived.. but of course that's not the biggest problem- Prime Minister Paul Martin happens to be staying at the Nfld delta today, and called front desk demanding his paper!

so i hunt through my phone directory to figure out which of our 20 or so agents is in charge of nfld hotel deliveries, and try calling him [wake up his wife, but he's not in..]

then my boss calls on the other line just to check in and i have to explain to her what's happened. we make a conference call to another agent in nfld and between the transfer i overhear her screaming "The PM didn't get his bloody paper!!"

we get the home delivery agent to track down an extra paper to run over to him immediately.. and eventually we learn that the flight with the papers was delayed, and mr. martin would have gotten his paper, just slightly later. i suppose had we known he was in the area, we'd have made extra precautions. but, as dave said in his great newfie accent, "that's just the way the mop flops".

meanwhile i'm left trying to catch my breath again.