In the Midst of Chaos…

It’s a good thing us TV producers thrive on chaos, because we got our fair dose of it today. Let’s see, where to begin…at the beginning I guess…

9am this morning, my partner and I headed off to the office. We had an important meeting at 10am so wanted to get there in time to make the coffee, print up our paper work and tidy up before our guests arrived. Plus we had the window cleaning company coming at 10:30 to clean our filthy windows. We walked in the office and it is HOT. I mean stifling. The A/C has been acting up the past few days and the landlord was looking into it, but today it seemed to have failed altogether. And with a high of 27 degrees today, it wasn’t looking good.

We go next door to check the thermostat and discover that overnight there has been a massive leak and water is everywhere! Thank goodness not in our suite, but the rest of the tenants have had some pretty significant flooding. The landlord is called and he’s on his way when we realize that it’s now 9:55 and our guests are due to arrive at any minute to our beautiful, but hot and damp office that is filling up fast with various service technicians.

The phone rings and it’s the window cleaners, who are at my partner’s house doing her windows and have accidentally let the dog out of the backyard. So now the little 10 pound brown dog is roaming the neigbourhood, collarless. And guess what – our guests have just arrived. Fantastic!!!

We go in the boardroom and start our meeting, amidst the loud water-sucking machines and fans next door, the landlord running in and out of our office on his cell phone, the mail man (who we know from a previous life) stopping in to say hi and the various other tenants in the building coming down to discuss the situation with us.

A fire truck screams down the street (did I mention we are two blocks from the fire station?), my partner’s husband calls to say he can’t find the dog anywhere, and of course, the window cleaners show up to clean our windows.

In spite of it all, we had a very successful meeting. An hour and a half later, we and our guests were all very happy with what we had accomplished. They left with a smile on their faces. The chaos had subsided. Until we realized that the dog was still missing. CRAP!!

We jumped in the car and booted home, and spent the next 45 minutes searching the neighbourhood for the dog, but to no avail. I decide to go home and make dinner for me and the hubby, as my partner and I will definitely need to work tonight to make up for the fact that we got nothing accomplished but a good meeting today. And I’m of course terribly worried about the dog, as is everyone – but there’s nothing we can do for now.

As I’m driving up the road towards a main intersection (Churchill Avenue for you Ottawa folks) I notice two people standing on the corner pointing and staring at something down the road. I glance and to my disbelief, it’s the dog. He’s about 3 blocks away and running fast, so I do a fast u-turn, run a red light, pull over and jump out of the car. I run down the street after him, severely hampered by my 2 inch high heels (curse business attire!!) so I whip them off and I’m down to bare feet on pavement. Ouch.

I hightail it after the dog (reminder – he’s only 10 pounds, but he’s a fast little bugger and I am in bare feet) and I can’t catch him to save my life. People are encouraging me, trying to help..”He went thataway”…”Just saw him run behind that building!”. One woman even got out of her car and joined in the chase.

I have now run about 6 blocks at high speed in bare feet, but I still have the dog in sight. He’s far ahead of me, so I call my partner’s husband to come in his truck and nab the pup. 20 seconds later he’s there and he scoops up the dog. I am completely winded. He swings back around and picks me up and takes me back to my car. Then I went grocery shopping.

In the midst of chaos, we are thriving still. Sometimes I think the universe is testing us, to see if we are really ready for all this. If today is any indication, I think we totally, totally are.