A little aardvark never hurt anyone. 02/21/03
Work is weird these days. The office building I've been working in for 3-4 years is no longer going to be rented by the photo lab, and my department is moving into a building at the corner, owned by the lab. Already I go up to that building to work for part of the day. But to be there permanently? I will miss this place. The sunshine coming through the blinds, the peace and quiet, our own bathroom, the office courtyard with benches to sit down and eat lunch at, the japanese maple trees. Seems that we're being moved into the basement at the corner building. Already my co-workers are joking about "living like moles, underground".
Most days I walk up and down the sidewalk, from my department up to the corner, bringing work between departments, completing tasks at both buildings, back and forth throughout the day. So I guess after the move I will get less exercise. I have been watching a house being remodeled across the street from the sidewalk I traverse. The construction workers recognize me and wave. Over the past year I've seen this house change from a two-room 1950's style shack to a decent, modern-looking cozy small home.
Another odd thing about work lately: I never know where I stand. This week, the older lady in my department, who is one of the supervisors, has treated me like a good friend, as if we are two smart females in a sea of confused men. However last week and for a while before, she was condescending and intent on getting me to do things her way. Today she was telling her friends at work and her daughter about how I had hit upon the right solution for fitting our department into the new building at the corner. But all I had done was explore the layout and imagine where our workstations would fit in best, then she let the management know what I thought. I just wanted to make the best of an awkward circumstance: If we have to move into the basement, can we at least have all our equipment in this one area? Move this and this here, and we have all the space we need. No big deal.
So I never really know what will make a positive impression on those I work with. Last week I sort of got reprimanded for doing too good a job. Instead of denying the customer's request, I went ahead and did the artwork, did a quality job of it. But I am supposed to only do the order if it will take ten minutes or less to complete. My co-workers couldn't believe I had "fixed ALL those cracks/tears in the photo" in only ten minutes. Ah well.
Also I have no idea what they think of me coming in to work somewhere between 11 and 11:30, taking long lunches, leaving whenever I feel like I've been here too long. I am afraid to ask, thinking that they'll say, "You really should get here on time in the morning. And work exactly 8 hours!"
It's Friday, glorious FRIDAY! What am I up to this weekend? Housesitting, dogsitting with Steve at his parents' place. They live an hour north of here. The best part of being in that area is that they have In-n-Out Burger places. We might also take a train from there into the city. Ahhh, Shopping! Exploring! That would be great. As much as I enjoy lazy bumming around at home like last weekend, I think it is time for something different. One cool thing we did last Sunday was to go for a walk along the railroad tracks, all the way from our house to downtown. Maybe tomorrow's long walk will be in downtown San Francisco! That would be sweet.
