I am so far beyond frustrated right now, that if 'frustrated' were a person standing on a globe, I would be staring at the back of Frustrated's head

I don't want to do this anymore.

Though, I admit, "this" is pretty vague. I don't actually do anything.

You may believe that it would be pretty frustrating to come back to work after a five-day weekend to a strange email in your inbox you don't understand.

I can tell you from personal experience that it is.

From: InsolentBob@insolenceisking
To: Tom@can'tbelieveIstillworkhere
Subject: FW: Fax received from "Fund 102 Boston Office"
[attachment: Invoices]

Did these go out, and if so can you provide mw with back-up?

Here, "these" refers to the attached invoices. There are three of them. They look like bills. "Go out" refers to.... I have no idea.

I don't know what "go out" means. Should I look at the fund balance sheet to see if money left the fund? Should I call the post office and ask if there was outgoing mail? Are the invoices dating? And if so, why should I care? Let them live however they want to live.

So, not knowing what the hell Insolent Bob means (as usual), and not knowing what to do about it, I simply replied "No. I didn't see them go out."

Because that's safe, right? I didn't see them go out. (Again, not that I know what that means.)

The response:

From: InsolentBob@stupiddoes
To: Tom@no,really,whydoIstillworkhere
Subject: RE: Fax received from "Fund 102 Boston Office"

No what I meant is did you process wires on Friday?

Oh, oh, I see. What you meant. Meant. Got it.

Maybe, if that's what you meant, that's what you should have said. In the first email.

Really. Imagine the email exchange now, this time, Insolent Bob says what he meant, instead of something totally indecipherable:

"Did you process wires Friday?"
"No"


See? Easy. I don't know how to process wires, but this way I know what it is he's talking about.

I could even ask him a question related to the topic, like, "Are there wires to process?" "Where should I look to find out if there are wires to process?" "Once I see that there are wires to process, what steps do I need to take to actually process the wires?"

Or you know, the big one "Is 'did these go out' a secret code for 'did you process wires Friday,' or should I be asking where the happy couple is registered?"

Thanks.

-t