Today I arrived at the office, carrying a two-liter jug of Talking Rain like a small warhead under my arm, and jiggled my mouse. I called into the timekeeping system (the slightly more reliable and white-collar way of ‘punching in’), and sat down in front of my…blank monitor. After a great deal of power-button pushing and connection-checking, I was quite certain that my computer had, overnight, become simply a white-noise generator with an orange light. I called the IT people, filed and fidgeted for a few hours, and eventually they took it away, later calling with a diagnosis of motherboard-frying. (this means I won’t be picking up my faerye net e-mail during the day for a while.) This has, as one of my scientists mildly put it, “changed my work schedule”. It’s been a little frustrating - the forms I had shortcutted and filed in a way that made sense to my particular brain are gone, and I am back to threading my way through the wilderness of internal websites and shared drives whenever anyone asks for anything. On the other hand, I’ve gotten a lot of paper-related activities done, and my desk needs to be dusted anyway.
On the triumph note, we have my bridesmaid dress for sister sledge’s wedding. For those of you not in the know, ‘sister’ sledge is not just a clever name. Well, the ‘sister’ part isn’t. Heaven only knows what the ‘sledge’ part is, but it probably is in fact a clever name. I am matroning, honoring, and singing at her upcoming wedding (in the wake of my recent cold, I’ve had a few bad dreams that the wedding has arrived and I’ve left my voice behind.)
Today when I made my way over to the admin building to collect the mail, there was a Large and Interesting Box for me, addressed in my sister’s handwriting. It contained my bridesmaid dress. Now, also for those of you not in the know, I am the yo-yo on the finger of body weight management. The teal silk confection in the box was made according to measurements taken when I was, in all probability, 4 pounds lighter. This was a matter of some worry to me as I crept back to my desk and faced once more the blankly staring face of my monitor. I fiddled around a bit, recycled some papers, and stared at the box. Finally, I decided that it would only take five minutes to stop myself from worreting all day about it, and I ran to the restroom, which includes a dressing room (hey now, no complaints - I’ve seen the blueprints, and the guys have one too!) So I tried it on, and you know what? It fit! I am not condemned to spend the next two weeks in Cathy-style last-minute exercise! I am not going to ruin the wedding by not fitting in my custom-made frock! I am very happy.
Boring little details of my day they may be, but they’re all that has happened, so far!
Comments
addenda
1. Glad the dress fits! I don’t like to cause others stress even in through peripheral non-intentional paths.
2. There is no cleverness in my “handle,” it’s the name of a musical group, soul I think. Soul sisters you might call them. Their heyday was in the 70’s I think, but they have a new album out. www.sistersledge.com The Groom likes to say “slow down, sister sledge!” when I get a little overstimulated if he, say, suggests going out to eat. I don’t know why. Probably it’s a movie quote and he’s told me the source. And I forgot. And I’ve told you all this before, and you forgot. Let’s all forget it again now.
3. Not teal. I prefer turquoise or aqua. Teal is a word once used to ugly rhyming effect by Bob Costas in reference to That Basketball Team. We do not speak of it.
4. One time the computer belonging to one of the other admins at my old office started smoking (literally: motherboard fry!) It was very exciting and entertaining, too, since she makes squeaky noises in crisis situations.
Re: addenda
I made a mistake and left the word “in” in the first sentence of my comment. Please delete it forthwith. I cannot abide unintentional linguistic imperfections in myself. Come to think, change that non-intentional to an unintentional!
Re: addenda
Hmm. To tell the truth, I don’t really know how to change it. I’ll look into it.
And you didn’t tell me it was the name of a band, just that he said it—which wasn’t very enlightening!
Fritzy Gadgets
Today in lab we blew a grand-total of four fuses, two on rockers and two on the outlets. Fortunately I was not personally involved in any of this, but am feeling the rocker/shaker shortage.
Does IT not have a loaner for you to use?
Re: Fritzy Gadgets
We are approaching the transit of Venus. The last time that happened, electricity was largely a novelty, so maybe that’s it.
Re: Fritzy Gadgets
Well, I am using a division terminal right now—but my files, some of the programs I use, et cetera…they’re all on my own computer. And there’s competition for this one.