TGIF! In the last afternoon of my first week at the new job, I have the following observations and conclusions:
- My office is freezing. I’m almost always cold wherever there is air conditioning, so I’ve learned to have a sweater and/or a scarf with me at all times, but this office is a whole different story. When I’m not typing or using the mouse, I’m sitting on my hands to warm them up. Not surprisingly, I am totally unmotivated to drink the bottle of water I bring everyday.
- As though to counteract the arctic mornings, my window lets in blistering afternoon sun on clear days. As grateful as I am for the natural light, my black hair is baking my head.
- On a related note, I feel obligated to have a plant because of the sunlight. Inconveniently, I am the angel of death for plants, so I think I may need to get a cactus-type form of vegetation. Or maybe bamboo?
- So far, I’ve managed to lock myself out of my office (temporarily — the lock is finicky), render the supply cabinet impregnable, and momentarily lose my car in the parking garage. Let’s hope no one noticed.
- After working at an office of only a dozen people, I am not familiar with the etiquette of the Common Microwave. I used to just take stuff out and holler that a Lean Cuisine was finished, but I have a feeling that that type of thing won’t fly around here. My apprehension reminds me of the universal question of whether or not to take someone’s laundry out of the dryer in college. Yesterday, I trotted out to warm up my leftovers and found a container of Indian food sitting in the microwave. I went back to my office to wait for two minutes. When I returned, it was still sitting there. I waited for three more minutes. On the third trip back, the Indian food was placed on top of the microwave and a new container of macaroni and cheese was simmering inside. After a moment of hesitation, I took a quick scan of my surroundings, switched out the macaroni for my pasta, and made it back to my desk chair without incident. Presently, the owner of the Indian food asked the general populace who had removed his food and I admitted to taking out the food belonging to the person who took his food out. I mean, I waited at least five minutes, which I think is a healthy statute of limitations relative to microwave time durations. With no frame of reference, I have no idea if I’m being reasonable or ridiculous.
- I work in a low-traffic, quiet end of the third floor of the hospital and there is generally no reason for me to walk around, so I’ve made a point of parking on the top level of the garage and taking all of the stairs in the garage and the building. Everyday. Both directions.
- Having high ceilings is cruel when you can only reach halfway up the walls, on a good day, with heels. It’s not as though I have shelves up there, but if I did, I wouldn’t be able to reach them. It’s the principle of the thing.
- I need some tunes, which will require me to bring in some old computer speakers and a stack of CDs to rip next week. I’m thinking a mix of classical/movie soundtrack/jazz/mellow will do just fine.
- The walls are crying out for some decoration, but the best, low-cost treatment I have come up with so far involves slapping up prints from my 2003 Ansel Adams calendar. I am not crazy about the idea due to my reticence to revert back to poster-putty decorating.
- I really miss my old office’s community label maker. I think I might put one on this year’s Christmas list.
- My supervisor told me frightening tales of the legendary critters around this part of the “old hospital” and I am not excited at all about the prospect of a mouse roaming around. Yesterday, I saw a huge cockroach zipping through the air, making a sound like an electric razor. It landed on the wall with an audible fwap and left me thoroughly skeezed.
- All of the content I am editing is flying straight over my head and not just because I am short. I have created research posters about the diagnostic use of an epidural blood patch and normalizing oxygen-based energy measures of gait. At the moment, I am editing a paper about genome mutation and I do not understand a word of it, but I can still edit it competently. Thank goodness that comprehension is not a prerequisite.
- If I answer my phone by lifting up, like I’m accustomed, I will bang the phone very loudly on my metal cabinet, which I totally did today when a nurse called for information. It was great. And not at all embarrassing. Must lift out, not up.
- I am enjoying the Power of the Red Pen a little too much.
- I get a thrill out of answering the phone with, “Editorial Services, this is RA,” because it means that I am an editor for real!
10 comments
May I offer a little ass-vice in case you don’t feel like ripping a bunch of CDs? Check out Pandora.com — it’s amazing. It’s free Internet radio. You tell it what music/songs/artists you like and it plays music based on what you told it. It will throw in some new stuff and play some old favorites, and every song that it plays you can give a thumbs up or thumbs down and it will adjust the playlist accordingly. It is my new favorite way to listen to music.
Your new job sounds so great — I am so happy for you! And way to go with the taking of the stairs every day.
I have discovered Pandora and it is great, though I find it repetitive for a whole 8-hour workday. I’ll probably resort to it when my music collection gets old, though.
What an awesome job! It sounds like things are going great.
I have a phone that must be lifted out as well. I have smacked it loudly on the desk shelf above it many a time (several times in front of my boss).
When I answered the phone and banged it on my cabinet, I paused before chirping my greeting brightly. “No, nothing happened, especially not a huge bang! How can I help you?!”
hard to kill plant: phildendron (not that I killed mine last week or anything)
I love that you have such a cool title. I could live without the roach stories though. EWWW!!!
The roach, it still hovers. Shudder.
Yay for your new job!
As for the microwave thing…I always remove stuff from the microwave. There are 50 people in my building who use the 4 microwaves we have at lunch. I don’t have time to wait for you to wander back down to the lunch room and take out your food. Maybe it’s rude….but, truthfully, I think it’s rude to hog the microwave when you know teachers have limited time for lunch.
Yes, teachers are tight for time for lunch, indeed. I just think it’s strange to get all bent out of shape when someone moves your food. I didn’t EAT it, right?
I’m a plant angel of death too, so no suggestions from me on that one.
And as for microwave etiquette, at my work? We only get 20 minute lunchbreaks, so if people leave their food in it and walk away, and I need to eat? It’s moved (once it finishes of course.) I don’t have time to wait patiently. Plus, our microwave is about ten years old and takes about four minutes to heat up leftover pasta, gah.
The hospital sounds … interesting! I don’t know that I could do it, with all the over-my-head vibes, but you made it through the first week! Congratulations, and I hope it just gets better for you.
I have made a point of tuning my ear for that microwave beep so that I’m not That Guy. It is really annoying.
sounds like you had a fun week. Have you ever heard of Pandora radio (pandora.com or something like that)? You just type in an artist or song that you like and they play a (free!) perpetual mix of similar music for you. It’s awesome. Although personally made mixes are awesome, too.
I do enjoy Pandora every now and again, but I like to have my own arsenal of music to mix it up. I’m paranoid about disturbing other people with music, though, so I doubt I’ll be rockin’ it that much.
Every single classroom in my school is freezing. Sometimes I’m so cold that I can’t think.
Congrats on the new job!
Whoa, that’s way too cold. Especially since TX is really hot outside, isn’t it?
I think it’s absolutely OK to take food out the microwave once it’s done cooking. I think the rude thing there, actually, is leaving your food in there to clog up the flow!
I wonder how the temperature in your office will be once the AC is turned off. It’s supposed to get a lot cooler as this week goes on, so you might find out soon!
It was funny to read what you said about your phone, because I am in the exact same situation! I mostly lift it out, but sometimes I jerk it upward and smash it right into my cabinet.
Oopsy.
Apparently, they’re very late in turning off both the heat and the AC, so I should probably be roasting once April comes around.
Oooh, isn’t a new office culture tricky? I think your microwave wait is perfectly reasonable. Much like the laundromat, if you don’t want someone to move your stuff, you’d better pay attention to when it finishes!!
Thank you. That is all I am saying!
Congrats on the successful first week! Roaches aside and microwave bottle-necks aside, it sounds like a fantastic job!
xox
Thanks, Heidi! I would definitely agree with your assessment. The roaches are creepy and the microwave thing is puzzling, but they’re both minor, you know?
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