And "Oh S*&t" was all I could think...

So the last few weeks I've been feeling like I'm really getting the hang of things here at my new job. I've said before that I'm surprised at how quickly I felt I had picked up on everything. So far most of my clients have been pretty easy to work with. I do have a few that think they have until 4 p.m. the day of deadline to submit things but it's still been going ok.

Well, last week I met with a client who scared the crap out me. I showed up at his office to discuss his upcoming story and he proceeded to tell me how much he hated his last story and that the girl who wrote it (not me, thank God.) made him look like an A-hole. He said that he almost pulled his ad. 

sidebar: I'm a feature writer at a local county newspaper and I work in the advertising departments -- so basically, these people pay for these stories and I have to write what they want...even if it's bad.

So, I write the story, send him the proof and wait in terror that he is going to call and rip me to shreds. No calls...for days. The finally on Friday, he calls and says, "Ok, I guess it's good." Now, this may not seem like an ideal response but compared to what I had to deal with before, I was ecstatic. I printed the story and it ran in today's paper.

This morning I'm sitting at my desk trying to work on stories for other clients when my phone rings and I see on my caller ID it says ELI Last Name.I freak. I literally said, "Oh s*$&. I'm about to hear it." My co-worker just watched as I answered the phone and you'll never believe what I heard on the other end...

"Hey, Stevy. It's Eli. Just wanted to tell you I was really happy with my story. I think you did a good job and I've already had two people stop in the store from reading today's paper."

My response, "umm..ehh. Well, Thanks Eli." 

Yep. I'm an idiot. I was so prepared for a tongue lashing that I didn't even know how to respond when he complimented me! 

Here's hoping my other clients are just as please!