'Tis the Season

No, not Christmas, but office cleaning.

Having just cleaned out my desk in my home office, we now have received notices here at my community college that we will be getting new furniture in early June. Consequently, we are to clean out our desks, file cabinets and bookcases, boxing everything up in preparation for this moving about of furniture.

Now, you would think that the announcement that we are getting new furniture would be cause for rejoicing. But you would be wrong.

All the office occupants here have become rather like pack rats. Professors have tunneled into their little burrows and stowed away, for lo these many years, books, papers, doo-dads, Lord knows what all. And, frankly, they are now deeply resentful that they might have to rid themselves of some of this detritus.

(thank goodness, this photo is NOT of the office I am in!)

It is really quite humorous to listen to these conversations. Grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter--who do they think they are?

I was flabbergasted at this reaction. See--the furniture here is what one might call from the early random collector and discarded items period. Nothing matches. Some of the items would not be in offices in state government. Trust me, having worked in state government, I know dull green desks when I see them.

In the office I share with two full time faculty, we have three desks--two are beige metal with a faux wooden top, the third is green metal, same top. We have two white bookcases that one of the full time faculty brought in, one short metal bookcase in taupe, another tall bookcase in beige. And the three desk chairs that we have are all different.

The new furniture will be modular (and matching), which may be part of the uproar. Faculty have collected small round tables, coffee tables, side tables. They have boudoir lamps, refrigerators, coffee pots, microwaves, radios. Every imaginable accoutrement which gives each office the vague air of a college dorm room. The word is, all these will have to go when the new modular furniturre is in place.

{YAWN} That's me barely concealing my boredom with the griping.

I have slowly set about tidying my things to store in boxes. And, in the process, I came upon this note I had posted to the door--it was making the rounds last year in email.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE LIVING IN 2008 WHEN. . .

1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )
12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

Updates on the office refurbishing as news is forthcoming. I just got
the official email, which concluded thusly:

"On Friday, June 13th, after 5:00 PM, the movers should be removing and disposing of furniture from (said office) Bay. Removing carpet and painting (two coats) can commence immediately with new carpet and furniture being installed by June 20th. During that week, staff from (said office) must function elsewhere."

R-i-g-h-t! Function elsewhere--hhmmmmm!