A "very good" story

Every year here at work, each employee has a performance review. I'm technically a temporary part-time employee so it's not required for me to have one but my boss prefers to so every year in April (not sure why it's in April, but it is) we sit down and talk about my work.

Because I tend to only work in the afternoon, and I don't come in on Wednesdays, I don't have a lot of contact with all my coworkers. (Kind of a bonus for me, really, since they are all men, and usually I can do most or all of my work without having to spend a lot of time with any of them.) But sometimes it happens that I don't have advance notice for things... like performance reviews.

Now I expected it coming up, just didn't know what day it would be. It happened on Thursday (notice that I wasn't in on Wednesday, so I didn't know until I came in.) That day I was wearing a new pair of white pants, which I cleverly managed to find at a bargain of $7. (By the way, they were the first pair of pants I had bought myself since October of last year... and only $7!) The problem with new white pants though is that they act as a kind of magnet for... everything else which might be wet or sticky and brightly colored.

So when I went to lunch, I knew I had to be extra careful about not getting them dirty--especially with performance review coming up. And for whatever reason I opted to eat some chicken things in an orange sauce... and was especially careful. After I finished I was quite pleased with myself that I hadn't gotten any on me at all, and I go back to work. Well, as I'm about to swipe my ID I see my reflection in the glass door, a huge smudge of sauce... not on my pants, but on my shirt. Not pleasant, of course, but my shirt was brown so I wasn't too upset. Although I was very confused--I thought I hadn't made any mess at all.

So I go inside and straight to the bathroom, holding my purse in front of the smear because... well it was kind of embarrassing. So I go to the bathroom and wash it out, now have a big wet spot but I think it has time to dry--I dry what I can with paper towels and adjust my hijab. I was wearing one of these enormous hijabs that day, that literally goes down to my waist if I don't keep it up... these big hijabs which very modestly cover the chest also make it difficult to see straight down. Maybe only a woman would know what I'm talking about...

So anyway, I then back up in front of the mirror and see, much to my dismay, a little orange spot on my nice white pants. So I go back to the sink and prepare to start washing it out and as I look down at my pants I see on the opposite leg more orange sauce--a very large smear around my knee and several more splotches further down.

Ridiculous. And I had thought I didn't spill ANY sauce! So I started to panic and tried to wipe out the sauce as best I could, knowing I wouldn't be able to get it all out. My review was in 30 minutes, after washing it out I just went back to my desk hoping it would dry fast.

It didn't, really.

I don't think the sauce was too terribly obvious, as I did a good job washing it out. And I was sitting behind a desk in my supervisor's office anyway. I don't think he noticed. But how frustrating! To have been so careful and yet still see this sauce having its way with me and my britches.

The review went okay by the way--I got "very good" which my fiance thinks might not have been "excellent" because I appeared somewhat untidy... sheesh. But I found out that my plans have less mistakes than some of my coworkers, which is exciting, because they all have more experience and they work faster than I do.

Later that night I managed to find more orange sauce in strange places: some got on the back of my purse, and then smeared on my shirt afterwards whenever I put it on my shirt. Again, shirt was brown and largely obscured by hijab.) But to keep finding it... oh so frustrating! I've washed the pants now and they're so white and clean except for the spots. Looks like I might need to pull out the bleach and go to town.

Did I learn a lesson? Ehh... not really.