Microsoft just got much smaller!

I was wondering if this would ever happen to me. No, I was hoping that someday this would happen to me…

And today it did!

I am still beaming.

So I’ve had an insane day. Got up at 6 AM to do my normal early morning work, which consists of receiving, reviewing, and (hopefully) approving work done by our amazing and wonderful production team in Mumbai, and then forwarding it on to Microsoft people who are anxiously awaiting it. I hurried through that, in spite of a few glitches, then hurried off to Harborview Medical Center where I had a follow-up ankle appointment (yes, 13 months later and I’m still in the process of healing). Harborview days are always insane because I feel like I’m thrown into a (literally) crazy world full of discouraged, damaged and devastated people. It always bums me out.

Anyway… I left Harborview in a hurry because I had a very full day of meetings at Microsoft and I knew I’d be flying from meeting to meeting, from building to building, from client to client, all afternoon. My workload is just about at that tipping point where I’ve reached full capacity and one more task could lead to – shudder and gasp! – dropped balls.

One meeting down. Client happy. Writer writing. Artist creating. Next meeting: GO!

I drove to the next building, scrambled for parking, clipped on my badge, and ran (ok, that’s a lie; I still can’t really run) into the building. Room 2051… where is it? Ah, here it is!

Knock-knock.

The friendly voice on the other side of the door, a new client named Cathy I’d be meeting today for the first time, called “Come in,” so I did.

“Oh my god…” She stared at me and then announced, “You’re Northwest Ladybug!”

Yup – I randomly met a faithful reader who, it turns out, is also a client! Needless to say, we spent most of out allotted meeting time blabbing like long-lost friends! It’s a bit odd to meet someone who knows so much about me when I know only her name, job title and Microsoft office number, but we intend to remedy that soon when we meet for lunch or coffee next week.

Yes, I took a photo, but I refuse to publish it (sorry Cathy) because I look like an overworked chipmunk. (Cathy, however, looks great!)

But I promise you, this actually happened!

So tonight when I pass Cathy’s project to our production team in Mumbai, I’ll ask them to treat it with just a slight extra flair because this new client is, after all, also a dear new friend!

This is exactly what I needed after last weeks “why do I blog?” whine.