the injury

this morning, i came in to work and heated up water (in the hot pot that sits on the credenza in my office) for tea. i went out to say good morning to everyone, and when i came back in to my office, the water was boiling. i don't even know what i was doing or how i did it, but i reached my left hand behind the hot pot (i think i was setting something down behind it) and burned my wrist from the steam coming out of the hot pot!  how in the world these things happen to me... i guess i'm really just that clumsy.

quick story: before this nice, cushy office job, i worked in a factory manufactured coaxial cables. one morning, i went to reach behind a solder pot to get some papers, and i let my right hand fall onto the opening of the solder pot. and burned my palm on some liquid solder. you know, for fun. my only real injury, my only real ER trip, and it was really stupid.

anyway, i held my wrist under cold running water and then put some ice on it.
please don't tell HR.


The Office quote of the day:

Michael Scott: Pam you want to rub butter on my foot?
Pam Beesly: No.
Michael Scott: Pam, please. I have Country Crock.

highlights!

too many stories. not enough time. but here are today's highlights:

• 68-year-old woman wants to cancel her insurance policy because it doesn't cover motorcycle accidents.
• sugar crashed, then got really, really hyper
• the HR lady looked at me like i was crazy.
• the office is on tonight!
• i sang "total eclipse of the heart" most of today. 

conclusion.

today, i decided that everybody is crazy... and that free cupcakes are the best.

thoughts?

the case of the missing mug

so, for the past week (about 4 business days), my blue mug that i got from wal-mart has been randomly MIA off and on. i stop by the kitchen pretty regularly around 10:30 each morning, and sometimes it would be there, and sometimes it would be not there.

there's another person in the company who has the exact same model of mug. i figured she was probably taking it hostage, completely oblivious to the switcheroo.

but then i couldn't find my mug for a whole day! i had to feed my coffee addiction, so i killed Mother Earth a little bit by using poisonous styrofoam cups from the kitchen.

then, yesterday, i found my mug on the kitchen counter -- with ice water in it. i walked up to it in a daze (probably from the lack of caffeine/sugar: i mean, my mug is a beast and those little styrofoam cups only just meet my addiction quota), and i said, "is that my mug?" sure enough, the three tiny identifiable scratches rested on the bottom. i said, "that's my mug!" while pointing at it. meanwhile, the kitchen was half-full of people, and one of them took ownership: "i'm sorry! it was in the cupboard, so i thought it was free game. i'll wash it and put it back!" to which i replied, "no, it's ok. i was wanting to get a new one anyway." which is not a lie.

so, last night at wal-mart, i bought a pretty green mug that is non-translucent, so you can't tell how much coffee is in there from any angle; you actually have to look inside the mug. and it's a square on the bottom but a circle on top, and i think that is pretty nifty.

anyway, the mystery is solved and i now have two mugs at my disposal in the office. this has been a pretty productive two days.


song of the day: "horchata" by vampire weekend

Spanish word of the day: ajena/ajeno

encounters in the bathroom

i took one trip to the bathroom all day today. maybe i'm not drinking enough water. anyway, during my one trip to the bathroom, i encountered a couple of people. it's ok - they were both female.

when i went to open the door, i almost ran into another girl who was coming out. we both stepped back, saying, "oh! sorry!" at the exact same time. yeah, we bonded.

then, a lady and i were washing our hands next to each other, and she said, "ok, you look like you're 12... so, 20s?" and i said, "yeah, 23." then it was kind of awkward.

and those are my bathroom stories for today.

The Bug Situation

today, thursday, october 15, 2009, will forever be known as "the day of the bug situation." here's what happened:

a bug fell from above onto a customer service rep's shoulder this morning. our office, like most offices in the united states, are mostly female. so, this rep was a female, and she did was most females would do in her situation: she freaked out. apparently, dead bugs fall out of the vent over her head all the time. so her neighbor suggested that there might be dead bugs in her hair. so she threw off her headset and shook out her hair. with the permission of our manager, she called the vice president of the company to investigate. they brought out a ladder, and there was some discussion about moving the vent by switching the ceiling tiles around... why do i never have a camera at times like these??

so, the vice president informed our front desk person that maintance would be stopping by to check out "the bug situation."

cue the maintenance guys, who brought in a ladder of their own and pulled out a little flashlight to check out the scene of the crime.

i cannot believe i left my camera at home!

anyway, we were discussing solutions to this epidemic. this is what we came up with:

• hang an upside down umbrella (ella, ella) from the ceiling to catch the intruders. but that's bad luck, so the idea was quickly rejected.
• hang a bedsheet to catch the dead bugs before they can contaminate our rep and her stuff. i like this idea because i had a rainbow brite canopy bed when i was young that i absolutely loved. it made me feel like a princess, and all those bright colors must have stimulated my brain to make me into the smart young woman i am today. so, yes, i very much support this plan, especially if the sheet has a pretty pattern on it.
• we're open to suggestions if anybody can think of a better idea.

word of the day: ungently

MLIA of the day: Sunday, at church, during the children's sermon the Pastor asked "What do you have to do to go to heaven?" Immediately one kid answers "Die." Everyone burst out laughing for the next five minutes. Greatest children's sermon ever. MLIA

random question of the day: someone brought in red velvet cake with white icing to celebrate the phillies' win on monday. why does red velvet cake make me think of a bleeding armadillo? 10 points to whoever answers this because it's going to drive me crazy until i can remember. it must be from a movie or tv show or book or something...

the wedding

a few comments on The Office wedding double-episode, "Niagara:"

• did anybody else notice that jim's last name was misspelled on the sign for the rehearsal dinner? ("halpret" instead of "halpert")
• also! wikipedia already gives you "pam halpert" when you search for "pam beasley"
• during the 24 hours after the episode aired, that youtube video got 1 million hits. i know this because my friend watched it right after the episode (which took forever to load, because everybody was doing the same thing, including me!) and then watched it again the next day. 1,000,000.

i think that maybe, when we get married again, we'll dance down the aisle like in the youtube video... (i would have linked the word "video" to the actual youtube video, but they blocked youtube at work a long time ago. but you can get to it by searching for "jk wedding entrance." if you haven't already seen it. loser.)

i often think about how i'd do it next time we get married. definitely will go barefoot again. that was fun. hair down next time. definitely more dancing. (there was no dancing at our first wedding, and that was no fun at all.)

customer service appreciation week

this week is customer service appreciation week, so we're all writing notes to each other and buying gifts and things. one person made me a sculpture out of paper clips. i like art. that one might be my favorite, but there's still one more day in the week.

speaking of swine flu and mooching free stuff, someone left a bottle of Coke on the kitchen table for more than 24 hours. unlabled. i Sharpied my name on it nice and big and it became mine. one of my co-workers called it "the herpes coke."

also, i was covering the front desk for a bit today, and there was a meeting going on in the board room. when they let out, the one visitor gave back his name tag. i told him it would be worth more if he autographed it so i could sell it on ebay. our fancy company pen wasn't working, so i offered the normal pen on the desk. when he gave the pen back, it no longer had a cap on it. i think he stole the pen cap. (MLIA)

The Office is on tonight! i'm excited; i love weddings, even if they are of the fake TV variety. and really, who doesn't like pam and jim? so, we'll see how it goes.

for customer service appreciation week, i've written up quizzes for our customer service department. the last question on tomorrow's quiz is, "whose family owns a beet farm?" obviously, this is a trick question: the answer is Dwight, but he doesn't work in customer service here... but it will be interesting to see the answers to that one. bonus points to whoever reads this and mentions it on the quiz. ;)

Office quote of the day: "Your art is the prettiest art of all the art." - Roy to Pam

The Finer Things Club... and some less fine things

last night, i went to my first meeting of The Finer Things Club. ok, so it's not work-related, but it's definitely Office-related! we had all read The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which i do recommend, even if it's French.

on a more work-related note (yet still, how very Office-related!), one of my co-workers discovered an alarming scene at the vending machine. now, on The Office, Jim is friends with the vending machine guy, Steve, and so he's able to prank Dwight by having his personal office supplies stocked in the vending machine. our vending machine guy is pretty nice, makes small talk without too much awkwardness. the alarming scene was this: his hand down the back of his pants. i can't verify this information because i was not there. could it have just been a quick fix of an untucked shirt? we can't be sure. personally, i would rather give another human being the benefit of the doubt. needless to say, i will be a little more wary of my vending machine purchases from now on.

question of the day: how many wpm (words per minute) can you type?

MLIA of the day: Today, I was sitting in my room and heard a little boy outside sneeze. I said bless you, and five seconds later, I heard a very hesitant...."God??." MLIA