I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve...

You know, I just looked at this picture and remembered that movie Lawnmower Man from a zillion years ago...I remember actually going to the dollar theater and seeing it with a friend of mine, back when we were in high school.

I'm so old.

That theater is now a Steak n' Shake, I think.

So weird, the stuff you suddenly remember out of nowhere. :)

My week has been filled with migraine, work, rehab place to visit my grandpa, moving boxes around my apartment, moving boxes around some more, migraine, migraine, work, migraine.

I also fit in some time to watch the MTV Movie Awards, read a little, tweet a little, play Legend of the Cryptids a little, and I felt terribly guilty THE WHOLE TIME.

And...I went to the basement by myself for the first time to wash clothes and nearly died on the stairs. It was dark, and I managed to miss the last step completely. Luckily, there was a wall right in front of me for me to smash into.

Staircases - I just don't do well on them, for some reason.

So...you know my co-worker Mark, right? The one who's now my landlord? Well, we're old cronies at work, we've sat next to each other for years...he's the one I bestowed my window seat to earlier this year.

We've worked in the same office at the same job for the last 15 years or so, and we're considered 'old-timers' on our team. We recently acquired a new person, who's been with the company maybe 7 or 8 months...and wow, I just don't know how we're going to break her in.

I've caught her several times asking our supervisor for MORE WORK. Then, I heard that she went and asked ANOTHER team's supervisor for more work. THEN, if that wasn't bad enough, I overheard her bragging about the fact that she had to go and ask for more work.

Oh, boy.

But the really funny, awful thing happened on Tuesday.

Tuesday, I was sitting at my desk, typing up an email, minding my own business, when I heard New Girl walk up behind me and start talking to Mark. So of course, I immediately ceased minding my own business and started listening.

New Girl: Hi Mark...
Mark (warily): Hi...
New Girl: Um, I was working on some of your accounts...

(Here's me, thinking, OMG, if you even so much as touch one of MY accounts I will END YOU!!)
(sorry...I have rage)

New Girl: And um...don't take this the wrong way...

(Here it comes, that phrase is never followed by anything good)

New Girl: But...WHAT do you DO all day?

(??? Oh no she didn't!)

New Girl: I mean, these are in such bad shape, some of them, and I was just wondering, why...

Mark, after being momentarily stunned into silence, very gracefully told her what he did all day, as he is the leader of our group and does all the things that we don't have to do.

Finally, New Girl left.

Seconds pass by, then, at the same time, Mark and I slowly scoot our chairs back until we can see each other behind the cubicle wall.

Gut-splitting laughter ensues.

We're trying to talk as we're gasping for air.

"Did you hear-"

"Did she just say-"

Finally, Mark gets it out...

"If she'd been one of us, I would have told her the truth.

"What do I do all day?

"AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE!"

This is the mantra of someone who has worked in the same job for years and years and years.

:)

Poor New Girl. It's not her fault she's new and gung-ho, but it IS her fault that she asked one of the rudest questions I've ever heard, and jokes have abounded in our pod the last couple of days about what we do all day.

Besides work, that is.

Miss you all...

:(

My cube...no, really...

So, this is my desk at work. Doesn't it look cozy?

It has all the comforts of home: my astronaut, my kitty and NWF calendars, my UK stuff (Big Blue Madness is coming up and it'll be time to change out my poster-yay!), my diet Pepsi and of course my daughter and kitty pics. 

There's a weird thing about working in cubicle-land. We spend half of our awake time here, with our only reprieve the weekend. We spend more time with work people than we do with most of our friends and loved ones. 

If I need to remember something, I put it on my work calendar. If someone needs to email me something vitally important, I give my work email. I'm pretty on top of things at work. It's just the rest of the time that I'm such a disaster. 

I really love my job, my company and my co-workers, and it's really a dilemma. In the past couple years I've seen four of my friends get fired. FIRED! And these were all people with 20-25 years of seniority in the company. 

Granted, the firings were just. But now I'm so paranoid about everything I do, AND I look around at my friends and wonder, who's next?

(For the curious: 

Friends 1 and 2: Friend 1 borrowed a controlled substance. Friend 2 gave it back to her when she got her Rx refilled. ILLEGAL!, and this all happened on company property.

Friend 3: Missed work approximately 485 times in a 6-month period and got 484 warnings. That last time did her in. 

Friend 4: Her second job was as a realtor. Spent lots of time at work looking up listings, doing realtor stuff, etc., on company time. Big no-no.)

So yeah, I'm trying to be very good. 

I probably shouldn't be writing this at work. 

Oh my gosh, there's a bad person living inside me. 

I'M ON BREAK! I'M ON BREAK!

I have to go now...