A Better Frame of Mind

feeling much better now. probably because i've simply stopped thinking about all those things that were irking me earlier today. sometimes the solution is so simple, i'm amazed i didn't think of it before. better living through willfull ignorance. hey, if its free, sign me up.

so i've never really explained my new little work area. i mean, i've explained what it is physically like, but what of the people who inhabit my little corner of town? go ahead and sing with me...

"
Oh these are the people in my neighborhood,
In my neighborhood,
In my neigh - bor - hood,
These are the people in my neighborhood,
The people that you meet,
When you're walking down the street,
They're the people that you meet,
Each,
Day!
"

i enter my wing of the building, climb the stairs, and walk through a cubicle hallway to get to my desk near the windows. on the way, i pass by the love of my life. he occupies the second cube on the right as i walk towards my desk. he is tall and thinand asian with a pierced ear. his cube is covered with pictures of his children (i think they're his children). laughing, smiling children who you KNOW would be the bomb-diggity to play with. two of them, a male and a female. there are even those cute early-saturday-morning pics, with my object of affection bleary eyed and glasses-less in a chair at the kitchen table, with both kids either in his lap, or working on getting there. he is clearly straight and married and so unattainable, but seeing him and knowing he exists makes me oh so happy... it brightens my day to be reminded that he exists.

so after i make it down the rest of that little cube-hall (the last few cubes are empty mind you, while three of us are sharing one length of desk right around the corner...) i get to our little section of the hallway. i slump low in my chair. i meld with the computer (its name is still Pig). to my right is lauren, a married aries mother of two. she is a lovely mix of demure and professional exterior covering a no-nonsense, irritable, at times derisive little spitfire. i love it. i envy her kids; i believe they have an excellent mother, and their father is a virgo, so clearly he must be great as well. to my left is melissa. she lives with her boyfriend kenneth, and is now also taking care of her father, who left his second wife out in the country and moved in with them. she is delightfully skewed, and a pleasure to have on my team.

as i putter away at Pig, there often rears above the cube walls about us an employee worth describing. he is a massive hispanic man, with a nose like a perfectly drawn triangle that hovers atop his six and a half foot tall bulk. he is built like a mountain. a slightly obese mountain. he wears a backbrace (black and blue, laced with white) that barely encircles his girth. his solid looking stomach is thrust up and out by this orthopedic device. you feel as if he were to brush against you, you would be shot through a few cubicle walls before coming to a rest in a pile of fluttering memos. from my vantage point, he makes his way about our area like some errant godzilla, quietly rearing above the cube wall in front of me, and just as silently disappearing below it. needless to say, he is a soft spoken, polite individual. he is also godzilla. this is life.

rounding out our area is ted. ted is irritating. ted means well, but teds nose has a talent at smelling out where he is least needed and wanted, and dragging the rest of his ridiculous self after it. ted is the man who explained to me the intricacies of using the black and white printer for black and white documents, and the color one for color printouts only. because clearly i'm an IDIOT!!! ted has made himself our self-appointed guardian. again, sweet, but misguided. he jokes with us (he seems to get the most enjoyment out of his jokes. we all smile and nod, or in my case, turn my head and grimace) and tries to make sure our trashcans get emptied, etc. (yes, since we aren't in actual enclosed cubes, we don't get janitorial services. at least, that seems to be the going logic.) melissa and i today agreed that it is possible that ted is sweet on her. we then agreed that people are lots of fun. or are at least amusing.

also nearby is an aging male texas hippie. they're their own breed, these guys. they don't smell, they look clean, but their hair is long, and their clothes are appropriate for casual office attire AND/OR a few nights camping in the hill country. he is a nice guy, really nice, and not in that fake creepy texas nice way that makes my skin crawl, but genuinely nice. and he keeps pecans and plastic-wrapped packs of square-shaped mexican gum on a filing cabinet for anyone who wants. i like him.

there is also the creepy science lady who works in the cube directly past the wall in front of melissa and me. she is an odd one. our general feeling is that we don't like her. she does not give out gum. and we think she was one of the people who complained about us when we first moved here. she looks funny.

so that, in a nutshell, is our general area. paco, your letter is totally up on my wall. as are a billion other things that probably make passerby think i am a nutcase.

well shame on them for being right...