The new copier

About two months ago (and actually it might've been 3 months ago now that I think about it), my place of employment let us retire the old printer/scanner and purchase a new snazzy-er one.  We got all the bells and whistles.  (Hey - it's a cliche...there are no bells and thank the Lord, there are no whistles...although I do work with whistlers.  Why does my co-worker whistle Christmas songs January through November but NOT in the month of December?  Good King Wenclesas, Here We Come A-Wassailing, etc.  It's not cool in July when I have to apologize to people for humming Christmas songs.  I distinctly remember saying outloud, "I don't want to go a-wassailing...it's JULY!  It's too early!"  He just laughed and laughed...and kept whistling.)  Where was I?  Oh yes, the cliche rabbit trail...oh my goodness - I'm not really on a rabbit trail.  I was just wandering from the original topic of conversation.  I guess "rabbit trail" is quicker to say.  I digress...I digress soo much and sooo often.  I'm surprised I even have a blog-following.  Yet, you come back for more.  Why?  Why must you torture yourself reading the thoughts of the girl with curly hair?  Technically today, it's straight.  I'm doing the whole 3 days straight, 1 day curly routine.  We shall see if I have big curls tomorrow.  Here's hoping...

Okay - so we have this new printer/scanner.  It's high tech.  It will GBC punch (those little slot punches all along the side of the paper) our documents.  Today I decided to put the printer to a test.  I had to print 10 spec books that contain 250-ish pages...front and back = two fiddy.  (You knew I wasn't saying "fifty"?  It's "fiddy!") 

Several hours in to this printing extravaganza -- WAIT - let me back up the fun bus.  Soo to begin printing, I decided to print the PDF document all single sided.  Why on earth when I did this, did it print every other page and/or every other third page blank?  I was soo confused.  Thankfully we have that little box of pink gunk that you can moisten your fingertips and flip through the pages quickly.  There went another hour...trying to organize the document.  Some sections where double-sided and some sections weren't that large so they just needed to be single sided...then you have to be careful that one section doesn't roll into another section...lest the engineers can't figure out that it's a new section if it's not on a new page.  Okay. 

Sorting done...now began the "fun" part of the day...making the copies and making sure everything was running smoothly.

Somewhere around 5 hours in to this printing conundrum, the printer decided that we were no longer friends.  Just like that (snapped my fingers) our friendship was ova.  Paper jam after paper jam.  The punching thing wasn't working right -- I thought about punching the punching thing!  Not nice, I know.  I KNOW! 

Around 2:15, I said to the printer, "Look, I have to leave early to go to the dentist.  I would appreciate if we could resume our friendship and you could help me out here."  And then I turned around to see my supervisor standing there...and then the laughter spilled forth.  "You are talking to a machine, Angie!"  I replied, "I am aware of this...but if I talk nice, it will act nice.  Kindness matters."  He just shook his head and walked away.  Someday, there are just no words.  I know...trust me, I know.

Kind words said -- and the copier printed the last 10 sets of 20 pages without an issue.  I'm not above talking nice to the copier.  I'll do it.  I'll do it tomorrow if it helps keep us friends and not cause any hard feelings.

I get all done printing and sit down to check emails before leaving...my boss comes over and says, "You know - I did mention to ______ (insert project engineer's name) that because of the size of the document, you could've gotten a quote and sent this out for printing."

I replied, "At the time, I had some time and I didn't mind; however the little voice in my head said to send this out!  I just chose not to listen."

My boss:  "Next time, listen to that voice in your head."  He chuckled and walked away.