I spent today working on my application for Masters Number Two (someone, stop me). Luckily, I got out of having to order and pay for official transcripts from my current U, thanks to the fact that when you apply from there, the school just pulls your record on its own. However, wasn't so lucky with the GMAT score and now, I'm truly convinced that ETS is the outfit from hell. Not only do they lack customer service - ie, giving me wrong information and then refusing to correct it and refund my money - but they have the website and phone system from hell. But at any rate, that part of my application is finished.

I also spent the day calling hotels and caterers for a Very Big Event this spring. This type of stuff brought back memories of The Job and I had a scary fugue moment where I was remembering details of doing everything from booking hotels to wrapping gifts for the speakers. I only spent the money though, someone else actually handled paying the bills. Except for that one speaker with the weird travel itinerary. That was one conversation everyone in my department heard because it was possibly the most furious I'd ever been at work. It went something like this.

I had hired a speaker to come to an event in the summer of 2001. In his contract, I said I would pay him his fee ($8,000) for 3 hours of speaking and his transportation, room and board expenses. This guy was quite a piece of work. I had a room booked for him at the hotel (which, btw, is a national historical landmark and costs $300/night - we had a negotiated rate that was a bit less than that) but he went and made his own arrangements (grrr...) at the full rate, not the negotiated rate. But the kicker was his plane ticket. He was flying here from Ohio. The ticket invoice he sent me was for $1,600.

Eh? $1,600?

He flew first class. Okay. I didn't approve first class, but okay - he was a big guy. But what got me was how he calculated the ticket. He flew here from Ohio, then from here to Minnesota and then on to about 9 other cities in the continental United States. So the way I saw it, I was on the hook for a one-way ticket from Ohio to here (as he had a speaking engagement in Minnesota and theoretically, the other company ought to be paying for that ticket) and that one way ticket was only $750.

So I called his people and asked what the hey was going on. They told me that they were charging me the estimated refundable, changeable, first class fare from Ohio to here. Mind you, not the ticket that they bought, but one that they could have bought but didn't. What they bought was $750. Big difference. I asked him how he wanted me to explain this to Accounting? I had nightmares of the conversation.

"Um, yes, this is a receipt for a ticket that was never purchased, but if I called Delta and asked for a one way, refundable, changeable, first class fare from Ohio to here, then it would cost $1,600, so you should reimburse this guy that much money even though he didn't spend that much money and the ticket receipt clearly reads $750."

Not to mention, if he was charging all ten companies he had bundled together $1,600, he was clearly making a killing on travel. I also pointed out that it was unfair of him to put my company into a "tour" package without telling me first. Had I known, I would have had Corporate travel make the arrangements the same way I did for one of the speakers I flew in from California. I also pointed out that we had to pay for two hotel rooms for him - one that had been booked by us at the negotiated rate and then the one that had been booked by him at the full price.

I think he got the message; not only did he not go over well as a speaker, we were clearly unhappy with the way he charged us. So I ended up reimbursing him for the one-way ticket from Ohio and for his airport shuttle, and of course, the meals he ate which weren't already provided by us at the hotel.

I just realized how nightmarish that month must have been - I did not blog for an entire month. An entire month of nothing because I was chasing receipts, wrapping gifts, and angsting over how my agendas were printed on a slightly different color paper than the rest of my materials. Nah, I don't miss the job. Only the money. The money I miss, the job I don't.