Gimme Some Koolaid

09 Jan Gimme Some Koolaid

The buck stops here.

I really want it to stop there. Or maybe over by you. But definitely somewhere far away from me. But when push comes to shove, the buck stops here. Right here. Right where I’m sitting. Or where I’m standing. Or where I’m driving. Except I don’t have a car, so that’s less of a concern.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, what the hell is she talking about? What buck?? Is she going to tell some hunting story?? Don’t be ridiculous. Jews don’t hunt.

I’m talking about The Buck. You know, THE BUCK.

And this computer transfer is making me feel kind of Buck F**Ked.

I’ve been doing a lot of whining and complaining on Twitter lately about my massive computer issues and so I thought I would move it over to my blog. No, just kidding.

What I really wanted to say is that in typical Michelle fashion, I had planned this PC to Mac conversion to run perfectly. I had my precision timing plan all laid out. Then obstacles came up and I did what I do best; I knocked them out of the way, one by one, reorganizing, rescheduling, multi-tasking like a crazy person so that I could engineer this seamless transition and not lose a single second of work time without my computer.

Koolaid drinkers from around the world had assured me this was possible and I felt confident that we were going to nail this.

Enter Michelle’s Law. This is a little known sub-section of Murphy’s Law which says that every once in a while, just for fun, no matter how brilliantly I plan, some greater power will screw it all up, just so that I can hone my crisis management skills, my Zen-finding skills, and my ability-to-keep-everything-in-my-life-running-smoothly-despite-the-tools-I-have-come-to-depend-on skills.

Said things in my life which must remain running smoothly include my business, my life, my business, my husband’s life, my business, my kids’ lives, my business, and miscellaneous other things that come up.

Why? Because the buck stops HERE.

Yes, I can get some sympathetic groans as I complain about my computer woes to my family, my kids’ teachers, my clients, but that’s not really how I blogroll (I really think that was my best phrase ever. Better even than Shibumi. Really That’s how I blogroll should be my signature phrase, and Shibumi can just be my signature word.).

I don’t want to give a bunch of excuses and no one wants to hear them. I just want to get things done. That’s who I am and how I’ve always operated. I get it done and I get it done well (if I do say so myself).

Now it’s tempting to say that this whole computer debacle is Apple’s fault, because, you know, it is and all. But I have two things to say about that.

First of all, no one really cares. My kids certainly don’t care that they were late to school because I was up really late finishing some crazy backup and restore that I started really late last night because Apple didn’t do the transfer right and I was on the phone with them for over 2 hours etc. etc. No, my 6yo just knows that Mommy was slow this morning and he was late to school.

Do my clients care that I haven’t been able to follow up with their editors about this or that (ha ha! just kidding clients, I can’t even come up with an example because of course I’ve been on top of everything despite the computer nightmares!!) because of Apple? No. Because they aren’t Apple’s clients. They are mine.

And The Buck stops with me.

HOWEVER, the second thing I wanted to say is that despite all the problems, I really feel like there’s a glass of Koolaid out there-somewhere-just waiting for me. Despite the many frustrations, there have been SO many reps in the store and on the phone who have been unbelievably friendly and helpful (not counting Jeff who just hung up on me and never called back although admittedly (as my husband was quick to point out) I was a little snippy with him, but his response was totally unjustified)

I still want to love my Mac. I still want to join the masses who quote (somewhat annoyingly), “Once you go Mac…”

I still want to drink the freaking Koolaid!!!

And I think that must be because as a company, at Apple, the buck stops with each person. Virtually every employee has owned up to the mistakes that have been made and has taken steps to correct them.

So it’s a work in progress. And we’re working to fix it all. But I feel like we’re getting close to pouring Koolaid into some glasses, clinking and saying, “Cheers, Buck!”