An Office!

I remember my first fulltime job and the excitement over having a rolodex!  The job sucked and I was miserable, but I had my very own desk with a phone and an empty rolodex.  There was something thrilling about it and I tried very hard to savor every moment.  That rolodex was immediately loaded up with client contacts, coworkers and a few personal entries.

I went through a string of jobs that all came with a desk and a rolodex and they all sucked.  A lot.  Then one day I fell into what almost felt like a dream - working at a school.  I not only had a desk but an entire classroom!!!!  I never fully took advantage of it, failing to decorate the room and truly make it my own.

A few years later I landed an awesome promotion but lost my desk.  My new job had me working out of my car.  The trunk was my desk.  While driving to opposite ends of a very large school district had plenty of drawbacks, I pretty much set my schedule and enjoyed the meat of my job. 

I was sad to leave a few co-workers when I left that position, but it was clear I had suffered burn-out and had to go.  The next move was to my current employer.  Office space is at a premium here but somehow they manage to eek out another corner for yet another body.  I said the other day that the office space here transforms like the opening credits of the TV show Roseanne, the one where her face morphs through the years of hairstyles, aging and facelifts.

My first workspace in this facility was at a table in my supervisor's office.  A few months later I was granted permission to take over the empty desk sitting outside of his office.  That has been my area here for six years - the longest anyone has stayed in one spot.  My supervisor left last December and his office was reserved for a new, yet-to-be-hired Research Director.  This person wouldn't necessarily be my new boss, but they weren't sure.  Prior to her arrival somebody heard my suggestions to improve the office by creating a closet in the back to house the servers and other equipment.  They also carpeted the office and brought in a huge U shaped desk.  THEN a few shuffles in personnel ocured and the new Research Director was promised a different office.

On Friday I was given the green light to assume the old technology office, newly redecorated with a sound buffering wall, pretty furniture and carpet.

Folks, I HAVE A DOOR!  I haven't had a door in nearly fourteen years!  And that door wasn't one that I got to choose when it was opened or closed.  This is MY office.  Screw the rolodex and telephone, I have a door!  I can play my iTunes at a volume I can hear without headphones and I can hold a private conversation without three other people being privvy to me scheduling my next pelvic exam!

YIPPEEEE!!!!!

Breaking The Bed

This year we bought a new bed, a beautiful, comfy, sizable king sleigh bed. Unfortunately it has a design flaw, eight tiny posts like extra legs supporting the slats. It's good in theory, but rather jacked up (literally?) in practice.

It doesn't allow one to store very much under the bed. Of course it also doesn't allow for monsters nor plotting assassins to hide under there either (BONUS).

Unfortunately, the little slat supports don't hold up to certain nocturnal "activities". As the bed shifts, the supports snag on the carpeting. The connecting screw bends and eventually wiggle out of the slat, falling to the floor, supporting no more. When the support parted ways from the slat it splintered the wood, further weakening it. By Friday night, just simply lying on the bed would elicit miniscule creaking sounds forewarning of a cataclysmic break. I couldn't stand it and sought refuge in my son's empty bed.

Yesterday was spent traipsing from Home Depot to Lowes seeking out cinder blocks and another brick to make up the height of the slat supports. It's a total bitch to hoist a king-sized mattress off the box springs, then find a place to stow the box springs so we could execute our repairs. Once the supports were replaced and the box springs and mattress returned to normal positions, ahhhhh... my bed was perfect. No more ominous creaking. I hadn't realized that the middle of the bed valley had crept into our lives again, forcing me to cling to the edge lest I get sucked into the black hole. The bed was once again perfectly flat.

Last night was splendid, comfortable, peaceful. It's sort of sad that a bed barely six months old would fall to pieces like that, but I'm glad we were able to repair it.




PS. Happy Birthday Apple Computers!