This week had a few themes to it: stress, cold, cookies, stress, cold, melting, stress, cold, drips, and stress. Oh, and I forgot to mention it was cold.
For the purposes of this blog, I’ll spare you the details of the stress and cold and talk about the other things. They’re more interesting anyway.
Cookie Exchange
There are pros and cons to being a consultant. On the plus side, I don’t have to worry about the politics that occur at my client site. I can go about my work and leave the company issues to the others. But, on the other hand, sometimes I get excluded from company events.
On Monday, the department organized a “cookie and cocoa” hour for it’s employees. Basically, it was a chance to get away from work, socialize with co-workers, and get stuffed with lots of sugar so that everyone was all the more hyper upon returning to their desks. And would then have a big sugar crash thereby guaranteeing no work would get done.
I wasn’t invited.
Mid-way through the morning I got an Instant Message from one of my co-workers (RG) who asked me if I was going to the cookie hour.
“Um, what cookie hour?”
“Oh. Oops, you must not be invited. Sorry!”
At this point it was like, ok, you’ve already spilled the beans, now just tell me what ‘cookie hour’ is. I mean, it seemed secretive so I was intrigued. Plus, it involved cookies. Um, hello! She explained it to me and said she had a conflicting meeting and couldn’t attend. She had pinged me to see if I’d snag a cookie for her. Well, obviously I couldn’t do that so she went in search of someone else who could. I told her to have that person sneak a cookie for me while they were at it!
The day went on and I pretty much forgot about the impending events. Then 2:00 p.m. came, which is the International Hour of Cookie, and people started to wander over to the conference room where this magical event was to occur. One of them (AM) told me to come along but when I reminded her I wasn’t invited, she laughed and said, “Whatever, I’m gonna get you a cookie!”
Sweet, so if the first person that RG found forgot to get me one, then AM could. Either way, I was getting a cookie!
Everyone headed over and I noticed that my cube mate (KC) hadn’t gone yet. I asked him about it and he said he’d forgotten, then asked why I wasn’t there.
“I wasn’t invited.”
Instead of offering to get me a cookie, like everyone else had, he asked who was going to do it. I told him that 2 people had offered. That’s when he called me the Puppet Master and accused me of orchestrating this whole thing just to get a stock pile of cookies. I’m not saying he was right. But I’m not saying he was wrong either.
He took off and I was left to work alone. A few minutes later he came back with 2 cookies, one for him and one for me. He also told me that he had announced to the group that he was getting a cookie for me and no one else needed to. Guess he wanted to make sure justice prevailed and I only got 1 cookie like everyone else.
Cookie #1. 
A few minutes later, I heard someone come up behind me and then saw a paper plate with a cookie on it slide on to my desk. I looked up and one of the other guys (BE) had grabbed one for me. Ha ha! Score!
Cookie #2.
I casually turned and showed KC my little gift and he threw his arms up and fake-yelled, “WHAT!? I can’t believe it!” To which I replied by putting on my best Dr. Evil face and cackling, “MUHAHAHAHAHA!”
About 30 minutes went by and then I heard more footsteps behind me. In slides 2 plates of cookies – one chocolate chip and one monster cookie. It was RG! She had snagged 2 cookies and wanted to know which one I would prefer. Since I had already eaten 2 chocolate chip cookies, I opted for the monster one.
Cookie #3.
I giggled uncontrollably to myself. KC was on a call so I waited. As soon as he hung up, I turned and said, “Hey, KC, I think I’ll have another cookie.” He saw the 3rd cookies and his eyes grew about 5 sizes. He pretended to throw his computer across the room and slammed his hands down on his desk. “Are you kidding me?!? You really are the Puppet Master!!! Argh!”
Oh how sweet it is!
Desk Exchange
Two weeks ago I told you how Barry was “asked” to find a new place to sit when he comes over to OCP. Basically he was told to reserve a Quiet Work Space (QWS) because, “his kind wasn’t welcome ‘round these parts”. So on Tuesday, when Barry and Bubbles came to OCP to work, they each reserved a QWS. No harm, no foul.
Or so we thought.
We all went out for lunch and then had to hurry back so I could get to a noon meeting. When I walked out of the meeting at 12:30pm, an admin was waiting for me. She said Barry had been spotted in the building and wanted to know where he was sitting because he had been told he must reserve a QWS if he wanted to work from here. She had personally gone around and asked all the other admins if they had reserved a QWS for him and none of them had. I told her that he was in a QWS (and we proceeded to walk by the very room he was sitting in while I was telling her this) and Bubbles had reserved it for him (cuz she’s smart and stuff). She said that was OK but he wasn’t to sit at an empty desk because she had received complaints about him being loud on the phone. I had to balk at that because I sat next to him for 2 months and never got bothered by him being on the phone. I rather enjoyed it actually. Hearing that sweet Southern charm being oozed over the phone lines to unsuspecting business stakeholders the world over brightened my day on many occassions. But apparently others didn’t find it so charming.
Guess next week he’ll just have to work from the parking lot. Wonder if the WIFI reaches out there?
Water Exchange
Well, the saga of the leaking roof at the Annex continues. For those of you keeping score at home, it’s now been a full month since the leaking started. At first, it was just 2 drips above The Brit’s desk. Last week we saw that there were a few more and facilities was starting to put up tarps with hoses coming out of them. This week, it got even worse.
I haven’t personally been to The Annex in weeks so I’m getting all my information from Bubbles and The Brit (Hey, that would make a really cool band name! Although, we’ve already decided that if we form a band, it would be called Snotty Tissues. Don’t ask).
Bubbles and The Brit came in today to find the 2 open holes in the ceiling over The Brit’s desk had been fixed. And there was much joy and celebrating. One of the tiles had been replaced with a tarp/hose combo deal (for a limited time only! Or maybe not). And this was not your ordinary tarp/hose – it was one with a double hose!
Two! Two! Two hoses in one!
Isn’t that awesome!
So the day went on and all of a sudden, Bubbles started hearing a “ping….ping….ping”. She asked the Brit if she heard it. “Ping….ping….ping” OMG, the drip was back! Then they heard this, “Ping….ping…plunk. Ping….ping….plunk.”
There was a new leak!!
They called Facilities who came in again to investigate. Pretty soon, everyone in the office started hearing more pings and plunks and plops and began discovering more and more drips! It got so bad at one point, that they had to clean out the document storage room and cover everything with tarps to protect it!
By the end of the day, there were hoses coming down every which way.
Before leaving for the day, The Brit moved her keyboard and docking station under her cabinet to try and protect them. When she did, she noticed a new stain on her desk, coming from under her monitor. She moved the monitor to find a big puddle!
Ok, that is bad when you have your electronic equipment standing in water.
Apparently the cause of all the new drips was due to the change in weather. Today it got up in to the 40’s and so all the snow and ice on the roof of the building started to melt. It’s a flat roof so the water has no where to go. And since the building is 40+ years old and not well taken care of, there are plenty of holes for the water to come through. I’m almost afraid to see what the place will look like come Monday, after a weekend of warmer temps!
Other Exchanges
A few other fun tidbits before we leave you tonight…
…Scooter was spotted having lunch at John’s again and as he was leaving, John called out to him, “Bye Davey!” Yes, that’s right, Scooter has a name and it’s Davey!
…As The Brit was leaving, she heard some voices coming from the lower level of The Mall. It sounded like children down there and she heard someone saying things like, “Now stretch and there we go. Good!” We think it was some kind of weird children’s aerobics. Maybe they are part of the church that lives in the theatre. Or is it a cult? Or is it Jane Fonda? I guess we’ll never know.
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