Cat Herding isn't for sissies

I just finished a 80+ hour week finishing up ONE of my proposals. Today, I'll finish another, and Monday will start my third. I'm pooped. Whupped. I've got liquid sloshing between my ears. But with the help of lots of caffeine and an occasional Provigil, I'll get through the next week, and hope that I don't get another for awhile.

Cat herding isn't for those faint of heart. There's nothing like finishing up a proposal, sending it to print at Mimeo.com (GO MIMEO!), and discovering that your proposal has to go through customs and the guaranteed delivery time is 9:00 PM, and the proposal is due at 11:00 AM. That'll get your heart pumping, no matter how tired you are (I was functioning on 4 hours of sleep in a 48 hour "day." Hmmm... maybe functioning isn't the right term). So, after trying every which way possible to get it delivered before 11 am, gave up and went over to the dark side... Fedex-Kinkos. The positives: by printing in Canada, I don't have to deal with customs, and the store will deliver it, too. The negatives: it's Kinkos.

I guess Kinkos got tired of Mimeo kicking their butt, and finally got themselves a true print to Kinkos software. Too bad they didn't try to make it better than Mimeos. It's a very pale comparison - but, hey! I can print in Canada and bypass customs! So, I go to their site, select international, canada, toronto, ontario. Awesome! It only takes me an hour to upload all 830 pages, select tabs, and another 15 minutes cussing, trying to get a binder (gave up). I go to "proceed," and it dumps me back to the front door, and I lost all my documents. WHAT?!? So, off I go again, browsing, uploading, adding tabs, and hit "proceed," and can't change the delivery address to Canada. Seems it dumped me back to the US portal. $%^&$%^&$%^&$%^&!!! So I have the brilliant idea of calling the Toronto store (it's 24x7), and the guy who answers tells me to send it to KenXXXX@fedexkinkos.com, with directions on how to build the binder. I dutifully spell the email address back to him K-E-NXXXX@fedexkinkos.com. Yep, that's it. Spend 30 minutes painstakingly building out instructions, and hit send. Relief! It's 1:00 am, I'm exhausted, but it's gone. In the email, I asked him to call me when he received. After 30 minutes, I call him. Didn't receive, did I send it to KenXXXX@fedexkinkos.com? Give it another 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes later, they still haven't received it, give it another 5.

I go back to the website, determined to try their software again. This time it worked, got it uploaded and it's told to print 2 sided, 3 hole, color, got it all the way through, got the confirmation email, and it says to call them. So I do, and this time I'm talking to Ken, the project manager, who never received the email from me. Did you send it to CANXXXX? Can? As in Canada? Not Ken? ARGH!!!! Never mind, he got the order from the system, and they can do it and get it delivered Monday before 10 am. Awesome! I forwarded the confirmation email to my account manager in Toronto, and I finally go to bed after 3 am, utterly exhausted.

The office phone starts ringing at 11 am and I sleep right through it. When it rang at 12, I was in the shower. See the message light blinking when I walk past, so I call, expecting to hear that the account manager has done the quality check, paid the bill, and it will be delivered. Nope, he's gotten a call from Kinko's asking if we really want everything 2 sided. Ugh! I very painstaking verified every document to make sure it was 2 sided, 3 hole, and color last night before I clicked "submit". Call the Account Manager, and told him yes, that's what I ordered. An hour later, he calls back -- now they want to know if we want everything in color. AIEEEEEEEE!!!! That's what I ordered in the system!!! The Account Manager has it under control, he's going to go by Sunday and do a quality check of the binder. I'm done. I think.

So, lesson learned again...

1) Don't use KINKOS!
2) Make sure of Mimeo's delivery times to the customer BEFORE final run (GO MIMEO!!!).
3) Refill Provigil prescription.

Cat herding is definitely not for the faint of heart.