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The Big Mistake Nearly Became Huge

2 min read

At the office I have this eraser, it's pretty big, and it says "For Big Mistakes" on it.  I was given it shortly have starting my new job at Marshall after I had accidentally dropped the wrong database in a migration process.  We had a backup so it wasn't that big of a mistake but it was funny and so John dropped the eraser off on my desk.  It's mine until someone else does a boneheaded thing.

This morning I decided to clean up my desk as it was getting a little cluttered.  I wasn't sure what to do with the eraser but I knew I wanted to keep it visible but because it is funny and becuase it is a good reminder for me to slow down and show a little more care at times.   I have a shelf off to my left that displays a few things and I thought, "Oh, I'll just lean it up against something on there" and I picked up the eraser and leaned it against the first thing I saw that it was sufficiently smaller than so that the eraser wouldn't block out my view of the supporting item. 

I took a step back to see how it looked and realized I had just made a big mistake.  The eraser was leaning up against a framed wedding portrait from our big day.  Clearly having "For Big Mistakes" labeling your own wedding picture is a bad idea.  It only sat there for a second before I shifted it over to cover the spines of a few books on the opposite end of the shelf.

I'm glad I caught it; I certainly don't consider my marriage to be a mistake and I'd hate for it to have been sitting like that when Lisa visited the office.