{"id":196,"date":"2013-05-20T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T10:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/?p=196"},"modified":"2017-05-26T09:40:45","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T13:40:45","slug":"a-ronulian-story-the-tale-of-wally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/?p=196","title":{"rendered":"A Ronulian Story: The Tale of Wally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ron is real and the inspiration for the Rondays.\u00a0 A Ronulian is someone who is Ronlike.\u00a0Happy Ronday!<\/em><\/p>\n

My intern was going back to college the last week in August, and my new assistant wasn\u2019t starting until the 2nd week of September. So I had a one-week gap where I wouldn\u2019t have extra help, and it was during the launch one of our bigger marketing campaigns. So I asked HR to provide me with a temp.<\/p>\n

Wally had just finished up an assignment in another department. I had him for 3 weeks to overlap the intern \/new assistant.<\/p>\n

On Wally\u2019s first day, I explained that we had a 3-piece mailer that had to get distributed internally to 500 employees. I was going to be in and out of meetings all day, but the intern understood the project and could answer any questions Wally had.<\/p>\n

There were 3 parts to the mailer:
\n\u00b7 An internal memo
\n\u00b7 A copy of the newspaper ad
\n\u00b7 The sample postcard<\/p>\n

Each part was coming from different places and at different times, and it would be his job to make sure to make\/grab 500 copies of each and put them in the pre-labeled interoffice envelopes.<\/p>\n

I knew it was confusing, but as I explained, Michael the intern understood the entire project and could answer any questions.<\/p>\n

The first piece of the 3-piece mailer was the memo. I needed it copied on to letterhead once, and then 500 copies of the letterhead memo made (trying to save the letterhead, but still get the logo)<\/p>\n

I came out of the meeting to find 500 copies of the memo all made, but no logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cOops, Wally. Looks like we forgot to copy it on to letterhead. That\u2019s okay, I know it was a little confusing. Michael can show you how to copy the logo on them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Wally looked confused. \u201cIt is on letterhead.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It was clearly not on letterhead.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I mean, the letterhead with the company logo on it. See the space at the top? That\u2019s where the logo is supposed to go.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe logo is on the memo,\u201d<\/em> he insisted.<\/p>\n

I double-checked then looked curiously at Wally. Maybe it was like the emperor\u2019s new clothes, because I didn\u2019t see diddley or squat of a logo. Michael (my angelic intern) swept in and handled it while I rushed off to the next meeting.<\/p>\n

As I left meeting #2, I saw that the newspaper ad had been faxed over.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the second part to that 3-piece mailer, Wally,\u201d<\/em> I said as I handed it to him. \u201cWe still need the postcards, those will come from the printer later today. But in the meantime, just make 500 copies of this and put them in the interoffice mailer with the memos. We\u2019ll add the third part to the envelopes this afternoon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Michael swooped in again to make sure the fax was copied correctly and I went off to my 3rd meeting.<\/p>\n

Then it was lunchtime. My whole department liked to eat together \u2013 and we invited Wally along. He was finishing up a few things, but he\u2019d been working at our location for a while, so I assumed he would just catch up with us in the downstairs cafeteria. We headed down the hall when I heard this panicked cry of my name.<\/p>\n

I turned to see Wally running at us. Expecting to find out that we\u2019d hit an iceberg or something, it became obvious that he just didn\u2019t want us to leave him behind.<\/p>\n

As we headed down the stairs, he asked me: \u201cOn the interoffice envelopes, do you prefer that the string be wrapped in a loop around the 2 red circles, criss-crossed in a figure eight pattern, or just all around the bottom loop?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I looked up with a laugh, assuming he was making a joke to lighten up after his struggles this morning. But he was dead serious. I swallowed carefully and then answered, \u201cWhatever works best for you, Wally, is fine with me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

At lunch, we were all talking about the horrendous traffic that morning and other problems with the local highways. Wally joined in with, \u201cYeah, like last night? My girlfriend and I went out for dinner and when we got home the cat was sick all over the place.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(pause)<\/p>\n

(because we were waiting to figure out what that had to do with traffic.)<\/p>\n

Wally went back to eating and so did we, trying to cautiously sneak glances at him for signs of alien matter when he wasn\u2019t looking. On our way back to the department, I decided to check in the mailroom to see if the sample postcards had arrived from the printer yet.<\/p>\n

I sent Wally up with Michael and walked past the reception desk. One of my co-workers stopped me. \u201cI see you got our Wally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOmg,\u201d<\/em> I said. \u201cIs he always like this?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOh yes,\u201d<\/em> she said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to hurt his feelings though, so we just told HR that his assignment was finished so that we could get rid of him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(pause because I don\u2019t want to talk about the tears I wept then.)<\/p>\n

I decided to shake it off and head on to the mail room. I mean, really, how bad could it be? And hurray! The postcards had arrived for the 3-piece mailer! I grabbed a few samples and headed back to my department.<\/p>\n

\u201cWally, the postcards are finally here for that 3-piece mailer. Michael will go down to the mailroom with you so you guys can grab the boxes and start putting them in the envelopes. I\u2019ve got one more meeting and then I\u2019m headed off-site for the rest of the day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Wally nodded his head slowly, and then waited for Michael to return from the bathroom so they could head down. I went in to my office to check emails and faxes for a few minutes. I heard a knock at my door and turned around to see Wally standing in the doorway.<\/p>\n

\u201cUmm, other than these 3 pieces, are there any other pieces for this 3-piece mailer?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I looked Wally in the eye. \u201cNope. Other than those 3 pieces, those are the only 3 pieces for the 3 piece mailer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Wally sighed. \u201cOkay then. Because I chose the figure-eight pattern to seal the envelopes and now I have to undo them all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That was Wally\u2019s first and last day working for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ron is real and the inspiration for the Rondays.\u00a0 A Ronulian is someone who is Ronlike.\u00a0Happy Ronday! My intern was going back to college the last week in August, and my new assistant wasn\u2019t starting until the 2nd week of September. So I had a one-week gap where I wouldn\u2019t have extra help, and it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-ron-blogs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2UnPK-3a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeywrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}