the office

the good things about my new three-week contract office job:

the good: money.  every day i multiply the hours i’ve worked by my hourly rate to figure out how much i’ve made. then i take that amount and decide what interesting things i’d buy with it…
the bad: …if i didn’t already owe it to some individual, utility, or financial institution.

the good: having to be someplace every day.  i haven’t had to do that in a long time.
the bad: having to be someplace at nine in the morning.  i haven’t had to do that in a long time, either, and when midnight rolls around, my body still thinks it should be awake for another three hours.  let’s stay up! it whispers at me.  we can sew and surf the internet and watch tv for a little while longer, can’t we?  and then when eight a.m. rolls around, my body thinks there’s no way in hell it’s time to get up yet.  my dog agrees.

the good: shared itunes folders.  i don’t know any of the people who work here, but i think i might really like the guy who has joy division, talk talk, echo and the bunnymen, the church, and the entire pixies discography.
the bad: if i’m listening to a track in someone’s shared folder and they shut down their computer, the track stops right in the middle.  hey!  i’m trying to rock out over here!

the good: i haven’t spent much more than a few hours on a mac since 1997, so this pretty machine with its 8,000-inch widescreen monitor and brand-new software is giving me a chance to brush up on my skills.
the bad: i lack knowledge of some very basic mac techniques and terminology, which makes me look dumb.

IT guy: i added a creative projects server alias to your dock, didn’t i?
me: i don’t know.  what’s a dock?

web girl: so just take screenshots of these pages and make them into jpegs in photoshop, okay?
me: sure.  how do i take a screenshot?

i’m just fine once my questions are answered, but having to ask them makes me feel like somebody’s grandma, one who’s never seen a computer before.

the good: the dress code isn’t too strict here.  they just don’t want you to wear tank tops, ripped jeans, or flip-flops….
the bad: …which is most of what i own.  well, that and various sewing debacles i wear around the house.  i probably shouldn’t show up in those, either.

the good: the people here seem nice and are generally friendly.
the bad: i’m only here for three weeks, so there’s almost no point getting to know anyone.  mostly i just feel uncomfortable around everyone, and in the office in general.  if i went to lunch with the web group or ate in the breakroom, i might start to feel more at home, but what’s the point since i’m gone at the end of the month?  instead i just go home and eat leftovers while watching whatever angel rerun the tivo pulled down that day.  when i come back to the office, i’m just as uncomfortable as when i left.  this is something i already knew, but had forgotten: spending all day surrounded by people i don’t know is lonelier than spending all day at home by myself.  at least there i have the dog to talk to.

but, hey!  money!