Yesterday my boss and I went into DC to get some particular paperwork we needed signed. According to the information we had, we didn't particularly need an appointment, and someone would be available to help us all that day.
I actually put aside some other tasks so we could go do this. I drove us to the metro, we rode it, changed trains, and even had a nice 15 minute walk or so to the place we were supposed to go.
Only to find out that the particular office we were trying to go to was appointment-only that day, and we were told to come back next week.
So we walked back to the metro, rode it, changed trains, and drove back to the office.
All told, it was maybe a 3 hour mistake.
Pretty frustrating.
But in retrospect, things could have been much worse. We laughed it off, scouted out a parking space for next week (when we will drive there!), and had a good long talk about other stuff on our plates. We strategized, and commiserated. I was grousing about it a bit to a friend who pointed out to me that hey, it was still billable time, and I was getting paid, right?
Absolutely.
I make mistakes all the time. Multiple times per day, it seems at times. That's okay though - I've got the room in my life for them. That's an enormous thing.
I've been struggling lately to consistently work out, and to re-establish a writing schedule for myself. One of the things I told my boss yesterday during what I called "our little sabbatical" was that I was going to be coming in to work later because I really needed to work out in the mornings.
He was totally cool with that. Maybe it was the 15 minute walk in mid-afternoon heat endorphins. Actually, he's just a really nice guy. In that same conversation, he also told me that when I need to, it's totally cool for me to bug out of the office and work from home for an afternoon, too.
Maybe that wasn't a wasted trip after all.