My crazy life

Sometime in April I was told that come May I would be working on a confidential fraud engagement somewhere near San Diego. Here's the timeline...

End of April: I find out I'll be in SD May 7-11 and 14-18.
May 3: I hear they won't be ready on Monday, May 7. Plan to be there Tuesday instead.
May 7: I hear they won't be ready on Tuesday. Plan to be there Wednesday instead.
May 8: I hear they won't be ready Wednesday. Plan to be there Monday, May 14. (at this point, I decide I can go to the grocery store. I had no food since I thought I was leaving town for 2 weeks.)
May 13: I don't want to have to sit in traffic for 100 miles on Monday morning, so I choose to leave Sunday night. I drive down to SD, leaving West LA at 6pm. I arrive at the hotel at about 7:45.

I go to the front desk to check in, and the girl at the desk tells me, "Your reservation was changed to the 16th." (The Manager on our engagement was taking care of the reservations and paying for them all on her credit card as the hotel is ~$200/night.) I think, "hmmm, I checked my email yesterday, but not today. I would assume that if something changed since yesterday someone would have called me." I call my Manager to see what's going on, "Oh no!" she says. "You didn't get the email I sent you last week saying that we're having to push back our start date again?! I am SO sorry. I sent it to you Wednesday or Thursday. You didn't get it? The client's numbers aren't right, and at the earliest we'll find out on Tuesday IF and WHEN we can start our fieldwork. I'll definitely be calling you with schedule changes from here on out."

Yes, good idea.

So I turn around and drive back to West LA. and for some God awful reason there's traffic in Orange County and LA between 8 and 10 p.m. on a Sunday night. I get home at 10:30. Next time, I'm calling the manager before I pack my suitcase and drive 100 miles. and on top of all this madness, I'm taking my audit exam in a week and a half. 4.5 hours of potential study time wasted in So Cal traffic.

J