Tonight Andrew used his Blackberry to make a call neither of us have ever made before -911. Let me rewind a little - to the beginning of our story. Andrew & I have been leaving work around 6:30pm for the past week, so when I looked at my computer clock and saw that it was 6:30pm I started worrying because I hadn't heard from Andrew since he dropped me off at my building that morning. Usually, Andrew and I communicate at least once during the work day, but today was different.
So, I sent an email to him and went back to work. Since it was later - and I assumed we would be going home soon - I decided to work on some of the easier work I had to do.
We are currently processing annual payroll for our clients. One of the responsibilities I have taken on at work, for the last few years, is releasing all the payroll. This just means I do the final quality control review making sure everything is in line - which it usually is. Tonight was a completely different story...I had 10 payroll clients to release. Of those 10 - 3 of them were to be sent to the same person. This client has a home in Illinois, another home out of state, and an Illinois business address. Each of the 3 payrolls were addressed to one of those three addresses - now does that seem like the best mailing option - I will give you a hint - its not. So, I consolidated the 3 into one envelope - addressed to the address that they were all to go to (per the mailing directions on our firm control sheet.) Then I went on to the next client - it was a 1099 client only. By the time the forms get to me, the vendor copies are supposed to be sealed in their own separate envelopes so the client can easily and confidentially distribute them. As a staff, this was always my least favorite part of the payroll process, licking envelopes - yuck! Well when I was going through my steps in releasing I noticed that this step had been skipped - now it should be noted - at least 3 people will have looked at the payroll before it gets to me to release - the preparer, the reviewer, and the assembler. You would think one of those people would have caught the oversight but no one did. So here I am licking envelopes - one of my least favorite jobs - at 6:45 at night...more than ready to get home.
So after the 1099's were safe in their individual envelopes, I moved on to the next payroll. Now on this one, out of the 5 mailing envelopes made 2 of them were going to the wrong taxing authority address. Now I know none of these seem like a major problems - but these are mistakes that should be being made at this point and usually only happen once in a payroll period not three times in one night.
So, I tell you all this to give you an idea of what kind of mood I was in - a little nervous about Andrew's safety and REALLY annoyed at my 5 minute easy jobs taking me 4 times as long.
You will be relieved to know that Andrew finally emailed me back - he was alive, but very busy. He started a new client job today - and as is the usual result of the first day on a new client - he had very little downtime during the day and was very tired. So we settled on leaving around 7:30pm.
As usual Andrew called me when he got to his garage so that I know to start shutting down, packing up, and heading down to our usual meeting spot.
He was there waiting by the time I got there, I got in, and we started on our trip home. I spent most of the time, selfishly talking about my terrible day. Then Andrew told me about the free breakfast and lunch he had got from his client. At this point we were heading down Sheridan, right by where Andrew used to live - and about an eighth of a mile outside Evanston city limits when all of a sudden it happened. We were at a complete stop at a stop light. The light turned green and Andrew took his foot of the break. At that very moment a loud noise, like a rock hitting the side of the car happened - but we had not yet had the opportunity to put on the gas an move at all - so we were unsure how the rock got up the force to hit our car. Andrew suggested that the little motion of releasing the breaks might have loosened a stone that then hit the side of our car. It didn't really seem likely, but the car seemed to be unaffected, so we continued on to Chipotle - where we picked up our dinner, then headed home.
We are very grateful for our indoor garage - in fact I feel bad for even complaining, but...our parking spot seems to be on the low plane of the garage - so a large puddle formed right where we park our car. More specifically the greatest depth of said puddle is right where the passenger door opens up, when the car is parked. So, in an effort to keep my socks dry - I usually make Andrew stop just short of our spot and let me out (it should be noted that the puddle is only millimeters deep where the drivers side door opened up when parked - so Andrew's socks are at a low risk of getting wet.)
Anyway I got out of the car and let Andrew park it. While he did so, I noticed what had hit us ........................................ an orange paintball.
Needless to say - after my annoying night at work I wasn't going to let this go unreported - I mean clearly someone did this on purpose - it didn't just fall out of the sky. We didn't know the number for the police station and I was certain that when you called 911 they asked if it was an emergency or not. Turns out I was wrong - at least Andrew says the woman didn't ask, but he let her know right away that it was not an emergency, we just had an incident to report. So the nice lady on the other end gave Andrew the number for the Rodgers Park police and we waited on hold to file our report. In the meantime I took these pictures (the ones from a distance didn't turn out), cleaned off the paint, and confirmed that there was no damage.
Andrew proceeded to file the report - the cop was very appreciative that we took the time to file the report even though there was no damage. Who knows the next victim might not be as lucky as Toby. This little praise from the police officer left us both feeling like we had done our part to make this world a safer place.
I think Toby might have liked the war paint - it made him feel like he was back home.
Then as the Grand Finale to our vacation, we got to witness two dear friends getting hitched. I was a groomsman. It was a good way to celebrate our engagement day and Grandpa & Grandma Brandon's anniversary. Don't I have a lovely wife - she got a new hair cut. 
