When I was younger, and a student of my mother's, she would harp on me about the way I turned in my math work. In an effort to use as little paper as possible, I'd squeeze an entire math lesson into half a sheet of paper. This included all the work done and required steps used in order to figure out the problem. Naturally, she was unable to grade my work because the writing was so small. Or, I'd do all the steps in my head, writing down only the answer -- again, in an effort to save paper.
When we'd play a game as a family, I'd make everyone use BOTH sides of the Scattergories sheet and also turn to the backs of the paper for Pictionary. Every white space on that sheet was fair play and should be used to the maximum. Again. The need to save paper.
I've always wanted to be one of those girls who had beautiful, big, handwriting. BUT, in order to accomplish that, you have use a whole lot more paper. [sigh] The tragedies of my life ...
For proof, here's an example of me saving paper. I found this sitting on our dining room table the other morning ...
In case you can't read it well, the first side says, "Megan needed paper, but wanted to conserve, because she, only she, is capable of saving the construction paper forest." The back sides says, "This side is much more valuable than that other side, as it is a blank template on which to write hopes and dreams."Sheesh. Boys.
In my defense, we'd had a big "planning session" for our summer the other night (as evidenced by the mass amounts of "planning" you can see on the sheet - HA) and I was sick and tired of having that huge, ugly yellow sheet on my table, so I ripped off the part we didn't need anymore, and saved the top portion.
See. I'm not always a saver of paper ...
That last sentence just contradicts what I'm getting ready to say and why I've written this extremely long post.
Yesterday at work, I was adding a new client to our system. There are about 18 gagillion steps in creating a new client matter and I was almost finished and preparing to do the final step -- adding the client to the copier code list.
The firm assigns a number to each client matter and then uses that number for a lot of different reasons, one of the reasons being a way to track how many copies we make for that client. In order to use the copier, you have to first enter the client's code and then proceed to do what you need to do -- scan an item, fax something, scan a document to your desktop, or make 100 copies or whatever. You get the point. So, at the end of the month, when the client gets their bill for their attorney's time, they also get billed for the amount of paper/copies/faxes/scans we did that month.
The client code is on a sheet of paper, taped to the wall above the copier -- that way it's easy for the guys to use and for us office people as well. And, most importantly, all the codes fit quite nicely on one sheet of paper.
That is, until I needed to add this new client to that list. Adding one more person would've pushed the list onto a second sheet of paper. And, being the brilliant, money-saver employee that I am, I thought to myself how unnecessary it was to have two sheets of paper when I could just delete one old client and make room for this new client. I mean, c'mon, I would be saving a sheet of paper!
I proceeded to go to the copier, add the new client and delete the old one. Man, am I efficient. Aaaand, I just learned how to do all this the other week. I'm the smart-one in our family. Yup. 'Shore am. And I kept all the client's codes on one sheet. Also an extra victory point.
Anyhoo ... it's good to note that I did this deed on the 23rd of the month. Only, what, 5 more days of billing for this current month??? Not much more time to keep track of copies.
Because. You see. When I deleted that one client ... umm ... well ... [cough] umm .... umm ....
... I accidentally deleted ALL the client codes. All of them. And with that slight error on my part, there also went all of the info of copies for the whole, entire month.
[sigh]
Realizing my mistake, I frantically added the codes back into the copier, crossing my fingers that the amounts and numbers of copies would miraculously appear, but alas, the damage had been done.
All in the name of saving a stupid piece of paper ....
******* UPDATED
I've gotten a couple "oh my gosh -- did you get fired???" comments, so I thought I'd share that I'm safe in my current position. Whew. Major sigh of relief. My boss is a sweet, precious woman and just laughed at my predicament. I offered to pay the difference but she said not to worry. See what I mean? Precious. And terribly understanding. :)
