T
tozz
Guest
allow the caffiene and I to self indulge: two months to go.
attended my first and last pre-retirement seminar last week, looked about the room, lots of gray hair, older bodies, so why am I the only one who still looks and thinks age 22 when I hired in, huh? I figure the guys who brought their wives in were the serious ones, others were just playing hookey from the phone and making paper dolls for two hours. me? like dex I was just bored outa my skull--dept being contracted out doncha know--and wanted a change of scenery listening to stuff I already knew.
each task carries new meaning, i.e. hmmm, this is probably the last time I will re-load my stapler. or hmmm, will I miss the smell of shaved wood from the pencil sharpener? or the last time I will hear my polyester&scotch boss say "working hard or hardly working?"yuk yuk yuk. or "what can I do you for?" the last blah blah blah meeting where you play a game to occupy your mind like who is going to be the self-aggrandizing blatherer? or whose head will start spinning twenty minutes in? or who wins the lushest crop of ear-hair award? or maybe which motivational poster's urgings can be rearranged into a foul lyric (came close, once). I'm getting all teary eyed thinking about it.
passed through the cube farms, on the way back to my space in the world. the sight of acres and acres of cube workers performing often ultimately useless tasks always warmed my heart. ah, soon to be ex midlevel functionary in a major north american government. changed the page on the calendar for the last time. I love that calendar. nords and all the fed and military types probably know the one I'm talking about--the three page last month current month next month calendar. even though our office is now pretty indistiguishable from most corporate offices now, it always wasn't that way. it used to be prison chairs and metal desks and heavy black phones and buzzing florescent lights and cigarette smoke smog. the calendar? it sorta harkens back to those days. ugly as sin, kinda sam spade private eye-ish. that why I love it. anyhow, the three month pages are hooked on a piece of cardboard with metal hooks. probably costs $.15 to make. no, make that $.02 since it's probably imported from china now. the cardboard is stamped with big red letters: "property of US government. do not throw away. this backing can be re-used indefinately." well, I've been re-using mine since 1988, can't call me a bad bureaucrat, nosirree.
when I leave for good I'm going to throw caution the wind. I'm going to trash that cardboard backing.
attended my first and last pre-retirement seminar last week, looked about the room, lots of gray hair, older bodies, so why am I the only one who still looks and thinks age 22 when I hired in, huh? I figure the guys who brought their wives in were the serious ones, others were just playing hookey from the phone and making paper dolls for two hours. me? like dex I was just bored outa my skull--dept being contracted out doncha know--and wanted a change of scenery listening to stuff I already knew.
each task carries new meaning, i.e. hmmm, this is probably the last time I will re-load my stapler. or hmmm, will I miss the smell of shaved wood from the pencil sharpener? or the last time I will hear my polyester&scotch boss say "working hard or hardly working?"yuk yuk yuk. or "what can I do you for?" the last blah blah blah meeting where you play a game to occupy your mind like who is going to be the self-aggrandizing blatherer? or whose head will start spinning twenty minutes in? or who wins the lushest crop of ear-hair award? or maybe which motivational poster's urgings can be rearranged into a foul lyric (came close, once). I'm getting all teary eyed thinking about it.
passed through the cube farms, on the way back to my space in the world. the sight of acres and acres of cube workers performing often ultimately useless tasks always warmed my heart. ah, soon to be ex midlevel functionary in a major north american government. changed the page on the calendar for the last time. I love that calendar. nords and all the fed and military types probably know the one I'm talking about--the three page last month current month next month calendar. even though our office is now pretty indistiguishable from most corporate offices now, it always wasn't that way. it used to be prison chairs and metal desks and heavy black phones and buzzing florescent lights and cigarette smoke smog. the calendar? it sorta harkens back to those days. ugly as sin, kinda sam spade private eye-ish. that why I love it. anyhow, the three month pages are hooked on a piece of cardboard with metal hooks. probably costs $.15 to make. no, make that $.02 since it's probably imported from china now. the cardboard is stamped with big red letters: "property of US government. do not throw away. this backing can be re-used indefinately." well, I've been re-using mine since 1988, can't call me a bad bureaucrat, nosirree.
when I leave for good I'm going to throw caution the wind. I'm going to trash that cardboard backing.
