Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Joy Of Being Non-Essential

When I worked at AOL, I was considered “essential” personnel, which meant that come Hell or high water, I was reporting in for my scheduled shift and staying for the full shift.
My new job? Not so much with the essential, so when the skies over Northern Virginia opened up today and deposited a decent (for Northern Virginia) amount of snow, people started bailing left and right, including my boss, who came around and told me that I could do the same at about 2:30.
So now I’m home with some extra time.
Apparently we also normally close at 3 on the Friday of a holiday weekend, so tomorrow I’ll get out early as well, with a three day weekend ahead of me.
(This morning I was thinking about MLK Day and how there are no doubt plenty of bigots who are opposed to everything Dr. King stood for but are perfectly happy to get a day off. It seems unfair, to say the least.)
Today I did an office supply closet raid. I was telling Scott that I’m still adapting to the notion of having my own private work space. The other day I was hauling my laptop, mug, and portfolio/valise/whatever you call it out to my car at the end of the day when I realized that I could just lock them up in one of my cabinets. It was a rather mundane epiphany, but an epiphany nonetheless.
I encountered the first really cute chick I’ve seen so far today. She was by the elevators when I was heading down to the first floor. She’d pushed the button, and I said, given that there are two elevators on one wall and another on the opposite wall, “It’s kind of like playing Three-Card Monte when you push the button; you never know which of the three is going to be the one that dings.”
She laughed, and then when we got on the elevator she said, rather excitedly, “Can you believe this snow?” I confessed that I hadn’t known that it had started snowing, and we talked about the perils of winter driving, and the fact that snow (or rain, or wind, or slightly overcast skies) causes people around here to develop selective amnesia and totally forget how to drive, then we went our separate ways once the elevator opened.
I did a ring-check and saw that her finger was unencumbered. She was, as I told Scott, very cute and petite, which is how I like ‘em.
Scott suggested that I may be able to win her over with my charm if she is, as I suspect, located on the same floor as I am.
I’ll need to find out if it’s possible to buy charm over the Internet. I’ll have to check Overstock.
I didn’t see any in the supply closet at work.

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