Random Work Tales

It's Just Lunch
Nearly every morning without fail, my cube neighbor steps into my cube, takes a seat in my extra chair, and fills me in on his life . . well, not just his life . . his love life. Actually, I’m not sure it can be called a ‘love’ life, since love really doesn’t have a thing to do with it. He’s a chronic lunch-dater, who somehow, despite having lunch and/or drinks with several different girls a week, manages to be a regular-dater of a particular girl. He says their “6 month” is coming up. I wonder, how do you have a 6-month anniversary with someone while she knows (because you openly tell her) that you see other girls? Odd. He’s asked me to help him brainstorm about romantic ways to celebrate this occasion. He already plans to pay one of the street musicians to show up at Dupont Circle at a certain time of night to serenade her. And they always have dinner by candlelight. If I didn’t know any better, I’d be jealous . . but I prefer to date someone who is exclusively dating me and not every girl in D.C. with nice teeth and a Louis Vuitton.

Ssssss
Today, as he and I were quietly discussing “the anniversary”, Leigh and New Girl came over and made jokes about our daily talks. The jokes are a little annoying, since they happen nearly every time we talk . . but today Leigh went a little beyond annoying. “I can always hear you from my cube, because of the way you say your ‘S’’s. You kinda have a lisp, so when you’re trying to talk softly, all I hear are your ‘S’s, and I’m like, ‘Ohmygawd, are you serious?’” . . . and on and on about how I talk. I’m a very good sport and can take a lot of crap, but it was the way she said it. And maybe it bothers me, because I’ve heard people hold their “S”s before and it’s kind of annoying, so does this mean that I am annoying people? Who needs to be self-conscious about how they talk? Not this girl. Because I talk a lot. So, I’m not mad, but it’s quite often that Leigh says things and they come off in a very offensive way. I never snap at people, but I’ve been a little short with her on numerous occasions. And the thing is, I know it’s not intentional. She is a more serious, intense person, but she has a great heart. It’s just that having to remind myself of this at least once a week gets a little old.

No Grey’s?!
At the moment, I have nothing to do at work, which is a great feeling compared to the usual feeling of leg-shaking, nail-biting stress! In four hours, I’ll be boarding a plane to Milwaukee. I wish I was excited, but I got a look at my itinerary and 10 hours a day of managing a room at a conference, plus dinners and after-dinner mixers, just doesn’t sound exciting. The thought of watching “Grey’s Anatomy” (thanks to BSG for lending me Season 2) on the plane and in my hotel room had me very stoked, but I just realized that my work laptop doesn’t play DVDs. “Seriously!”