So yesterday was a truly craptastic day that ended up OK thanks to friends (hence today’s image of choice :))

It started off awesomely, with my first bowl of oats this fall (I’ve been eating overnight oats with Greek yogurt and was totally ready to make the switch with the cool weather).

I was in a great mood — loved my outfit, my “feel-hot” jeans, knew I had plans to meet with blog-reader and friend Cathy for lunch … it was gonna be a kick-arse day.

Then at work, everything went downhill. As PR manager, I’m  responsible for planning two big events at work each year for our clients and prospects.

I had been planning our big event since the beginning of the summer, and it was finally coming together. Thursday was the day invites were going out and I was so darned excited to see it all coming to fruition.

All my ducks were in a row, all my T’s were crossed and I’s were dotted – I  was extra-careful as could be to make sure things went smoothly, felt confident. 

I had booked the hotel where we were holding the event, the guest speaker, reserved guest suites, all contracts were signed, initial payments sent, invites drafted and proofed, the Facebook page set up …

I always get nervous before sending out invitations or a big news release, double-checking things like 90 times. So I spell-checked, link-checked … it was “all set.”

Then I sent out the invites … and got word within minutes of hitting “send” from our biggest client that unfortunately, the whole department  has an off-site planned for that exact day  (we’d checked to make sure there were no conflicts months ago, and we’d been in the clear).

For anyone that does event planning for a living, you know this is not a good situation to be in — especially when contracts have been signed!

I was crestfallen, then panicky, then upset. I”d worked so hard planning it, only to have it literally fall flat. My stomach twisted into tons of knots.

Naturally, my initial reaction was “Oh, @!$@!$!”

But I surprised myself by not freaking out publicly, though inside I was freaking, anxious, stressed-out, wanting to throw something at the wall.

I went to my boss, who is totally calm and level-headed (yea, pretty much everything I’m not!!) and we talked and she said that we’d just need to move the date. (I seriously envy her ability to roll with punches!!)

As she noted, these kinds of things happen and they always end up working out; there wasn’t anything we could have done to prevent it — but we needed to rectify it ASAP.

So this happened at about 10:30 in the morning, and given the day ahead of me, I realized quickly that there was no way I’d be able to do lunch with Cathy, not with this  fire I needed to put out at work. Fortunately, she was totally awesome about it and we agreed to do dinner instead.

I told my friends I usually walk with what was going on and said that I felt like I needed to stay at the office, but Staci (a real-life friend and blog reader) convinced me to still do our lunch-time walk to decompress/zone out for a bit. I was eternally grateful — I soooo needed it! (Thanks, Stac!)

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon in conflict-resolution/crisis mode … filling in staff, contacting the hotel and guest speaker’s agent and though I can’t be sure, as of today, it looks like we’ll be able to reschedule both with no penalty … (let’s hope!).

I actually surprised myself by following my boss’s lead and just rolling with the punches and not bursting into tears (though I felt like it at times).

I left the office feeling a little better and more optimistic than 6 hours prior, that’s for sure!

I ran some errands and talked to my BFF and told her what had happened. Having a background in PR and event planning, she totally empathized.  Then I had dinner with Cathy at my favorite place, FoodDance — which was totally awesome — and just what I needed.

We had a long, leisurely dinner and shared dessert (OMG — we got this a-ma-zing chocolate torte that we could only eat a few bites of, it was so rich!) and talking really soothed me.

We finished around 9. Though I had gym clothes with me (having planned to work out after work, before lunch became dinner), I opted to take a day off (whoo-hoo!) and spend the rest of the night with my hubby.

This might not sound like a big deal to someone else, but that’s a big deal for me; whenever I’d planned a workout, I tend to do it, no matter what. But not last night. I felt calm and didn’t need to exercise to burn off stress; chatting did the same thing.

The moral of yesterday is that things don’t always go according to plan (at work or in our personal lives), but we need to deal with them anyway. And uncomfortable as it may be, sometimes we need to roll with the punches and be flexible with our expectations.

And the most important part? I truly got by with a little help from my friends — so thank you!! 🙂

Have a fantastic weekend, dear readers! 🙂