stephaniehaywood.com

Hello.

I am at work. I was suppose to start working 8 to 5 today. At seven o’clock this morning I realized how dumb of an idea that was. I have decided to work 9 to 5, which is much better. Waking up at 8 sounds so much better than waking up at 7 does. the thought of seven o’clock in the morning is just frightful. Eight o’clock, on the other hand, sounds nicer. Eight is Great! So I will attempt to work at 9 every morning. We shall see about that.

(By the way, this entry will be continuing in the same fashion as the above paragraph, you may not care to read on, which is perfectly fine… just so you know)

So then there was the issue of my brother and me and our ONE desk. Since we are both out of school for the year we have decided to work more hours, and in order to do that, we would be working hours that overlap. Since we originally shared one desk, but worked on opposite days, this was not a problem before. Now it has become a problem. Here were the proposed solutions brought forth from various people:

1) Rosa suggested that we just add another computer to our already too-small cubicle, we would be sitting kiddy-corner to each other, and have no room to even spin our chairs around. But, on the up-side, one of us would not have to move, we would be right there to help out each other, and we could hit each other all day long.

2) There was a desk not being used. It is in another part of the office that Austin and I barely ever travel too, unless food awaits us there, which is usually never. It is not a cubicle, rather a huge, long open, desk. It has no privacy, no walls, no secrets, no peep-hole. But it is a huge area, much larger than the elevator we sit in now, new people sit over there that we never talk to, and the copier is in the same room as the desk (this is a bigger deal than you will ever know). Rosa suggested she put both computers there. At least we would be together in the “Desert” (We call it this because of it’s barren apperance, non-isolated location, and it’s largeness).

3) The next option was to place one computer on that desk and someone would be forced to move over there.

4) There is room in the back room, behind all of the filing cabinets, next to Brian, who sits back there alone. This was not a desirable place. And it’s cold back there, not to mention how scary it is.

5) The last place mentioned was the basement. I had never been to the basement before today, and I have to say that those scary elevators from the movies DO exist, and they are SCARY! The basement is full of tunnels and rooms, and it’s not a place I would ever care to be.

Out of the 5 choices above, we chose #3. After the decision, which seemed the best way to go, we had to choose who would leave the comfy cubicle and travel out into the vast new land. I felt that i would be leaving for sure, because Austin has been working here about a year longer than I have, I was the one who came in and stole his desk, decorated it the way I wanted to, and took away some of his hours. I am the scum of the office, I should be placed into the desert. But instead, in the end, I am sitting in the same cubicle writing you this as Austin is fighting camels (new people), sand (the openness of the desk), and the dessert air (new surroundings). For that I salute him. I give him full support. It will be hard for a little while, but he will be back home sortly, as soon as I leave for Japan, but until then, and I wish him well.

Here is what he wrote that made him chose to take on the “New Desk”:

I decided to let you have this desk. I will take the big desk that lies like an oasis in the Meritor desert. It doesn’t really matter to me. I’d actually prefer it. I would get a new computer with WORKING speakers, which means I get to bring in my cds and listen to them. Plus the big desk is right next to the printer, so I won’t have to walk as far. I would also feel less obligated to talk to kathy, courtney, and the rest. I’m sure you like talking to them. I don’t watch the apprentice or friends, i have nothing to say to them. I’d much rather not talk to anyone. I guess that makes me anti-social. oh well. My humanities teacher was a pretty anti-social guy, too. He was talking about going to the movies and said how he always brought extra coats to put on the seats next to him. I thought this funny, and kind of sad, but mostly funny. Sounds like a good idea to me. But anyway, this desk is yours until you leave. I wouldn’t feel right taking it away from you. Sure, I’ve had it longer, but I didn’t really care about it. To me it’s just a cubicle, to you it’s like a home. You got pictures and figurines set up and everything organized. I don’t really care about cubicles. It’s just a place that i do work in, but you care, you need the desk.

Never before had I thought of this shabby little cubicle as my home, and now I realize it is. It is my little “house” at work. I live here. I have my lotion in the drawer, my pictures on the wall, and my GIANT GROUND SLOTH in his cave. I thank Austin for letting me have my home for the next month. When I leave I will move out, but I will leave everything as is (with the exception of the my little pony, i need to take her). He can decide which pictures to take down, to keep up, if he wants the GIANT GROUND SLOTH to leave his cave or not, it will be his desk in the end.

So today I found this neat little trick within my “cube” (from now on I will be refering to my cubicle as the CUBE, because it sounds funny, and if you know me at all, you know that for everything I see, I turn it into a shorter nickname that I and only I call it by). I was working with a lot of papers, and all of the sudden a piece of paper went through the wall. There is a tiny gap between the desk and the cubicle wall, and it is only thick enough to slide a piece of paper through. Of course the first thing I did was take a blank sheet of paper, my pink highlighter, and write on half of the sheet:

“Stephanie is in today”

Then I stuck the paper half way out the gap. This is a message to all the people who come back here. The rest of the day was occupied by the following signs that were placed one at a time, outward for kathy and everyone who comes back to this corner sees:

“Stephanie is out to lunch”
“Stephanie will return shortly.”
“An Icee sounds REALLY good right now!”
“Thank You Kathy!” (This sign had a dollar taped to it, because Kathy was running to the store and i asked her to pick me up some gum.)
“ICEE!!!”

That was all the signs for the day. Perhaps there will be another before I leave.

That is it for today! Bye Bye!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2004 at 3:30 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.