So on Tuesday this week I had my first day of being a full-time freelancer (musician) – exciting times right? Just the right time for my 2015 MBP battery to suddenly decide to give up working altogether – computer died the moment the power cable was pulled. Yesterday, it started happening while the cable was plugged in, seemingly when the computer was under any load. And sadly I’ve got work right now that I’m doing that I kinda don’t need the computer crashing on! Needless to say, Genius Bar appointment booked! I know @MacSparky had health issues on day one of going free agent, I wonder if anyone else has any stories from the trenches?! Also, I’m suddenly looking at the new Mac Minis very intently (thinking of going iPad-only out and about, which is teaching and gigging mostly).
Not freelancing but on the first day of my first job out of college, I had to go home at Noon as I was feeling ill. People said I looked as green as the shirt I was wearing. I spent most of that first week feeling unwell, but mostly able to hold it together and get to work for the rest of the week.
After a couple days, I started wondering if it was a chemical in my brand-new mattress, so I moved to sleeping on the floor.
It turned out that I was making things worse by doing that, because the issue was the formaldehyde off-gassing from the carpet the apartment complex had laid in my apartment a day or two before I moved in. The worst was over after the first weekend of the job. I spent several evenings trying every home remedy I could find for countering the formaldehyde, or accelerating the off-gassing process, but it didn’t fully clear for 2-3 weeks.
I love these stories. Here’s a long one…
I had my first big contract running a day-long workshop for employees across government in another province. I was set to arrive in the city the night before at about midnight.
While sitting in the plane on the tarmac, it became obvious that something was wrong—giant klaxons sounded whenever the plane was being brought up to speed to go out to the runway. We sat there for an hour while the pilots tried different things, and then an announcement provided the helpful insight that this plane had just been in maintenance and something was still wrong with it. We waited another hour or so for maintenance crews to show, at which point the flight was cancelled.
At this point it’s past midnight—we had waited on the plane longer than the flight itself should have been. I had 30+ people showing up at 8:30am for my workshop. I was on the hook for all my expenses. I’m not sure I was ever more panicked.
Then, as I was walking off the plane, I heard an airline staffer say that they would pay for cabs from this city to the next.
I bolted for the customer service counter. An hour later I was starting a four-hour overnight cab ride with two other passengers. I got to my destination, grabbed a couple of hours of sleep, and ran my workshop.
The whole ordeal became a big joke throughout the session and it went smoothly. They even brought me back a few months later. Phew.
At least I now have a great explanation for why I’m nervous about flying!