Friday, June 12, 2009

The Art of Arranging a Face After a Chair-Boogie...

It's finally Friday. I wonder how many people say that on a Friday after a long work week? I know that I, for one, am very glad. It's definitely been one of those weeks even though I only worked four days.

I did end up having my dance party yesterday. In fact, I'm having one today as well. I've found that as long as I don't flail too much, people tend not to notice my chair-boogie-ing as long as I curtail it when I hear people about to pass by. I've actually discovered it's a great way to get rid of the crabbiness of a gloomy morning. Yesterday, I was in a foul mood because my morning alone-time had gone away. Yet after a heavy session of the chair-boogies, I was grinning like a loon.

Of course, when I do that, grin like a loon, that is, I have noticed people do look a little worried. They get a wary look in their eyes and sort of back off. I'm guessing I might look a tad crazy because I have a big old grin on my face. People tend not to like it when someone's smiling and they don't know why. It worries them, as though there's something they're missing. It's not like I'm about to tell them that I had a refresh dance in my chair to Green Day's "Static Age" song and it made me feel significantly chipper. Instead, it's my little secret that I've taken to inventing new dance moves that can only be conducted properly when sitting in an office chair at a computer.

See, I just had a dance and now I'm grinning and I bet when my other coworker comes in, she'll say, "oh-oh, what's wrong?" because apparently, when I grin, it's alarming.

I'm not sure what to do about that. Despite the fact that I do gripe a lot, I'm actually not a constantly miserable person. In fact, most of the time I'm actually quite upbeat. I just don't walk around telling jokes and being chipper. I've been told that I often look angry when I'm concentrating when, in actuality, I'm concentrating. That's actually made me extremely annoyed, to be honest. When I'm working and focusing on my task, I don't have time to arrange my face properly. I tend not to think about it because, you know, I have other things to think about like work. Yet, in the past, people have said, "What's wrong!" when they've seen me in a concentrating phase which, instantly, both manages to distract me and irritate me.

Still, there's not much I can do about it. I could sit there and focus on making my face look more pleasant and grinning wildly as I work but I guarantee if I did that, people would still ask what was wrong because I'd be smiling and, honestly, who actually grins wildly the entire time they're doing a task at work?

I had another coworker in L.A. who had the same problem. People would always tell him he looked pissed-off even when he was just working. So he bought one of those smiles on a stick and would hold it up to his mouth whenever someone came into his office and said that. I liked him; he was a bit crabby most of the time but it was a familiar crabbiness and his sense of humour made me laugh a lot.

I have a different batch of coworkers these days. I like them a lot. For the most part it's a fun group of people all with unique personalities but a lot of fun. They're very different from my L.A. coworkers/friends. In L.A., there were a lot of single thirty-somethings in my department and that was perfectly normal. In the Midwest, almost all of the people in my age group are married or getting married. It's a different atmosphere but it's not a bad thing. In a way, it's comfortable. I'm long used to being the lone single in a group. The fact that there is at least one other person in my department who is single is a nice thing. Of course, that automatically means that because we're friends, people often wonder about us. It wouldn't be the first time that because I hang out with another female a lot, people assume I'm a lesbian and my friend is my partner. I find that highly amusing. I'm definitely not gay. I like men a lot; I just don't meet men that much and, when I do, they tend to eat crayons or only have been divorced for a month. Just because I have female friends does not mean I am gay. It's sad when your own brother admits that he wondered for a while too. Mostly, I was just amused.

Anyway, I digress. It's a gloomy Friday and I have a meeting in five minutes which means I only have a quick moment for a chair-dance. Which I'm doing right now as I blog because I'm good at multi-tasking. I'm already feeling better and feel like grinning again. I'll probably scare my boss in my meeting. He's mentioned that I look suspicious when I smile. I should be annoyed by that but actually, I kind of like that. Nothing like scaring your boss a little.

Happy Friday!

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