At the Office Episode 4: Scooters!

A few moments ago, I was sitting in my new office trying to figure out what to do next to fill up my time. I brought a few books with me, and I'm intending to try to work on the website I'm designing for my cousin's business in a few minutes. I'm teaching myself how to use Dreamweaver as I go, so it's taking me a while. Anyway, this thought process was interrupted by one of the guys in my office, who walked in, saw me, and said, "Hey Ashley! What's goin' on?"

"Absolutely nothing!" I replied.

"Nothing at all, huh?" he walked to his cubicle, set his keys down, and then walked back towards the door he'd just entered through a moment earlier.

"Nope!" I yelled toward the doorway. "Did you have any work earlier this morning?"

"Nah, not a thing." It was then that I heard the sound of wheels rolling on tile. I was expecting him to come rolling through in an office chair because the guys do that quite frequently when work gets a little dull. I've seen them roll around the cubicles and back down the hallways and into my office . . . there may have actually been a race at one point or the other.

However, it would appear that I was incorrect because as I heard the wheels approaching, I turned and saw the guy coming toward me on a red scooter as he sped around the bullpen area toward my office door.

I couldn't stop laughing. "Where on earth did you find that? Was it in the office somewhere?"

"Nope! I brought it with me! There's a blue one, too!"

"You brought two scooters to work?"

"Yeah! A red one and a blue one! Ya want one? They're in the back office by the side door against the wall!"

Before I had a chance to answer, he turned on his red scooter and raced off to get me the blue one. He returned in a few seconds on his scooter and handed me the second one, then began circling the cubicles again.

I'm sure this sort of thing happens at everyone's workplace all the time.

I used to think having a job with not much work would be pretty dull, but since starting grad school, I've learned to appreciate dull moments.

I mean, after all, it's only when people think work is dull and boring that they bring in scooters to liven things up a bit.

At the Office Episode 3: A Promotion!

A couple of weeks ago, I was moved from my cubicle to an actual office! Granted, the office is only 6 feet from where my cubicle used to be, but still! I have a room of my very own!

A Room of Her Own . . . I feel like a read a passage with that title in an English class in college once. I think it was written by Virginia Woolf. Well, now it's going to bug me if I don't check. I'll google. Just a second.

Yes! It was an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, titled "A Room of One's Own." The essay is considered to be a feminist text "which explores women both as writers of, and characters in fiction" and I remember that Woolf thought that in order for a woman to write well, she needed a space of her very own in which to gather her thoughts (according to a combination of knowledge from Wikipedia and my vague memory of reading it about three or four years ago).

Well, what do you know? I'm sitting in a room of my very own, and I happen to be writing. What a coincidence.

Moving on, I do even less work in my office. Apparently, being moved to an office means that you work even less, which I didn't think was even physically possible in my workplace. I mean, I work several hours a week, but the rest of the time is free time.

I've found various ways to fill this free time. I've read multiple books. I started teaching myself web design. Why not?

But I won't fool you. I mean you already know that sometimes I just play hearts on the company computer, or I write on this blog from my laptop (which I'm doing right now in an office of my very own).

Yesterday, I played Minesweeper.

I have a love/hate relationship with Minesweeper. On the one hand, it takes up time and amuses me; on the other hand, IT'S THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING IN THE WORLD!

Seriously! I don't think I've ever won the expert level, not even once. I'll be really close, and then I'll click the wrong button, and it's all over.

I got so mad at Minesweeper that I started playing Hearts again, only to get mad at the computer because I should have had a wonderful score of zero, but Pauline shot the moon in round 2, and then Ben shot the moon in round 3, and then I decided that this was just ridiculous and closed the window and left work early . . . because I'd already done my work for the day earlier, and I forgot to bring a book to keep my mind entertained.

I get mad at inanimate objects (primarily computers) much more often that I get mad at people. It's just a fact of life.

Although, I've got to say, I live a very very very blessed life seeing as the most worrysome part of my day was getting mad at Minesweeper in my new office.

Very very blessed.

Read Forever

I love this commercial!!!! It makes me want to read right this instant.

Fortune Cookies & She & Him

Look at my delightful fortune cookie I got from China Town at lunch today! Well, actually, I guess I should technically say look at the fortune. The cookie's gone. I ate it before I thought to take a picture. Food has a tendency to vanish if it is within a 3 foot radius of me. Unless it's carrots. I hate carrots. I hate them; I do! Okay, maybe hate's a strong word. I dislike them...greatly. I can eat them if I have to for the sake of being polite to the host, but more often than not, I discover at the end of the meal that the only thing left on my plate is...orange...and carrot-y. I made that word up just for you. Anyway, fortune cookies are lovely...most of the time. I went through a spell when all of my fortune cookies kept telling me to work hard. Bleck! The one I got yesterday is much better.Pleasant, don't you think? I thought so. It made me smile.

Also, yesterday I was thinking about how I was really sick of all the songs on my iTouch. I came to this realization because I listened to it on the nine hour drive to Houston and on the nine hour drive back from Houston. That's a lot of hours. My music selection on my iTouch is kind of pathetic by most people's standards. You see, I'm kinda thrifty when it comes to buying music. I always think, "Oh, I like that band! I'll buy their album!" Then, I look on iTunes, and I think to myself:

$12!!! I don't want to pay $12! I only like one or two of the songs...I'll just buy those two.

As I'm about to click "Buy" my silly math side gets the best of me and I start calculating. It's never a good thing when I start calculating. It leads to overanalyzing.

I can't buy just one or two! That's a waste of money. It's a much better buy if I just buy the whole thing.

But I don't want to spend $12! What if I don't like the songs?

I hope you see how this leads to a vicious cycle which continues until I get so fed up with myself that I do one of two things.

1. I buy the whole album.

2. I buy nothing.

This terrible mental process of mine has led to very little variety on my iPod since I actually buy songs very rarely, and hundreds of songs I don't even know or like because I bought whole albums of songs I didn't know or like because I was too cheap to just buy the two songs I liked for the sake of getting a better buy!

FAIL!

So yesterday, I went through this whole process with the intention of buying a song or two because I never do.

I should've known better.

I bought a whole album. I love Zooey Deschanel's voice, and I really just wanted the She & Him rendition of "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," but it was a much better buy to get the whole album, but I didn't want to spend $12, but I was going to quit being cheap and buy a song dadgummit!!! And then...I gave up and bought the whole thing. But seriously, don't you think "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" was worth it? She's got such a great voice. See? Or I guess I should say hear? Nah, that sounds weird. Here's the one song I intended to buy.

I'm glad I bought that song. I actually like the whole album. Occassionally my indecisive brain makes a good decision. I like all of the songs.

Unfortunately, I just found "I Put a Spell on You." It's $1.98 . . . or I could buy the whole album.

To buy or not to buy; that is the question.

I'm hopeless. I'll just wait a day to buy the whole album.