paisleypiper's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- scratching deer I did not give in and call the manager last night, and came into the office this morning to discover that the place where the door and a sidelight had been, was now covered in sheet rock. What is the university policy regarding arriving to work and discovering no door? Was I required to stick around? To cut a new port of entry through the sheet rock? To take no notice and sit down at someone else�s desk in another department? Leave a note to credit for showing up and then go home? I started roaming around and discovered a place covered in plastic around the other side of the suite. I carefully lifted up an edge and slipped through the plastic. Walked in the dark through an area under construction and finally found my way into the office to discover that my desk was dismantled and in a pile in the middle of the room and my computer was on the floor across the room. I borrowed my colleague�s phone books to prop up the monitor and spent the day combining my stretching exercises with my workday. This is the delight of construction in the work setting. It could only get better if somehow this level of inconvenience could be understood as impacting productivity. But that would never happen in our office. Today, the esquire/her directorship walked into her office, talking to me, making no sense, just like she does every day. She didn�t wonder why I was sitting on the floor with a keyboard in my lap, hunched over, peering into the computer, retrieving the 287 e-mails that piled up in my absence. How could anyone resist not making a comment? That is the human condition � especially in the office setting � and when someone fails to comment on the obvious in an office setting, it makes me wonder. Any number of people would either point out that I must be uncomfortable; look upon it as a conspiracy; threaten to contact risk management; make some statement that would suggest that this was some big idea I had, all my own, in response to the world. There would also be someone who could not wait to ask me for his/her phone book back, due to a phone book crisis. The state of the office is about as odd as it ever is � the esquire�s skin looking especially gray today. Gray exactly the shade of cooked pork chops from the grocery store. And the manager resigned, leaving the esquire in a state of shock, rendering her skin a deeper shade of gray. While on vacation, Quinn and I met a deer in the road. Quinn was driving and managed to get the car stopped before hitting the deer. Who at first did one of those �deer in the headlights� routines, but then decided that this would be a great time for a scratch. So we watched the deer scratch and this was a first for me. Rome could be burning, and I could be on my way with a bucket, and the esquire would ask me to stop and set up a plated luncheon for her and eight guests. But at least Monday is over now. 10:58 p.m. - 2002-07-15 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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