A Rainy Friday....

It's a really rainy day out there. Ever since last night when I drove home from work, it's been raining, at times the pounding type of drops you can hear beating against the window.
I love the rain. It's one of the many reasons I moved back to the Midwest. It just never rained enough in L.A. for me although, on occasion, in the winter, we did have these type of days where it just rained heavily, flooding the streets and making it a wet commute.

My commute was wet last night. I don't mind driving in rain but there are patches along my drive in which the lanes of the highway flood and I find myself starting to hydroplaning. I'm not a big fan of the hydroplane; it means my car is slipping from my control and I don't like that feeling at all. Fortunately, it's rained enough on my drives home that I've learned where the wettest spots are and I know when to slow down.

This morning, the rain has tapered off a little. It's supposed to begin again in a while, the heavy showers giving us inches of rain. It was nice that my drive wasn't too soggy, however.

There's something nice about a rainy day. I'm a big fan of them, on occasion. They're the type of day that gives you an excuse to stay inside, eat something hearty and comforting for dinner, curl up on the sofa and listen to the beat of the rain as you do nothing productive. Sadly, the rainy day is only supposed to last until this evening and the weekend is suppose to be dry and breezy.

The other thing about an Autumn rainy day is it that you can really see the change of the seasons. The street where I live became littered with soggy leaves overnight, the weight of the water pulling them down a little prematurely from the trees. It makes for a changed landscape overnight.

In the office, it's quieter than usual. Even though there are quite a few people in, there's a lull over the office. I came in to find that no one had made coffee. It always amazes me, that fact. There are a ton of people here who drink coffee and I guarantee now that I've made a pot, it'll disappear within minutes. Yet no one wants to actually make it. I think it's because our perky French-Vanilla-Air-Scenting Human Resources Manager is out of the office and she's usually very good about cleaning the pots. She's been gone for two days and when I get in, the coffee station is sticky, dirty and yesterday's coffee sits syrupy in the pots, stone cold. People tend to shy away from that mess even though they helped make it.

So, in addition to making the coffee, I clean the station up. I actually don't mind doing this; sadly, I sometimes miss my days of being an administrative assistant/minion. Back then, it was menial tasks that were easy to do but people actually noticed. Today was a day when the coffee station was very messy. I have a confession. I think the coffee sitting warmly in the decaf pot might have been leftover from yesterday. The pot never got turned off. I, uh, cleaned the area around the pot but didn't make more. I figured the decaf people could figure out if the coffee was too strong and, if not, well, then, they should be a little more attentive. We regular coffee drinkers at least turn the pot off when we're done, even if there is an amount of sludge still in the decanter.

Today, in our office, it's another "Office Clean Up Day". We've already had one in which we cleared out all the common areas in preparation for our move to our new offices. That was two months ago. Today is supposed to be more of a "Clean your personal area" day. That's a rather nice concept but we still don't actually know when we're moving. We're supposed to pack our crap up, ready to move. My somewhat obvious question is this: If we don't know when we're going, why bother packing?

I know, that's a nutty question. The managers have decided today is clean-up day and so their word is law. My teensy little problem with that is that I use most of the stuff on my desk. I'm talking about binders, pens, pencils....you know, the stuff that people use in offices every day. So, if I'm supposed to pack this crap up...how am I going to use it? It means I'm going to be working out of a box when I have a perfectly nice desk sitting here that's going to be holding the boxes out of which I'm going to be working.

This is probably why I'm not a manager. My decisions probably would make a wee bit too much sense. Our company isn't exactly they type of place that inspires us to bring tons of crap in to decorate our cubicles. Sure, I have my Geico Gekko statuette thingy and my Green Day Superhero Action Figures but that's about the only personal crap I have. everything else is work-related. And it's only on my desk beacause I....use it.

The biggest thing on all of our desks is our computers because we are, you know, a software company. Computers are sort of essential to that. We're not packing those up yet. At least...not that I'm aware, anyway. Which means our desks might be pristine at the end of the day except for the boxes that hold our stuff but they're still going to be cluttered with our computers.

Ah well, who am I to argue these decisions? I think we're all operating under the idea that when we move, it's going to be one of those "Get your boxes. Tomorrow we move!" situations. In which case, I can't help hearing yet another nagging little voice asking this question: Are we really only going to find out a day before we go? Our new building is under construction. I know, for a fact, construction doesn't get thrown together and then suddenly you can move in. There's inspections and stuff afterwards. These take time. How's about we find out when the inspections are and then we, the lowly staff, can have a little heads-up that we might be moving in a week or so? Or, even better, we, uh, plan on a date after everything is done and the building is ready. Do we really have to run like contestants on a reality show who've been told they have a time limit in which to cook a meal? Have you seen these contestants? They elbow each other, poke, grab and fight to the death to grab the mushrooms out of the pantry before anyone else can. I confess, that's what I'm going to picture now if I were to hear the words, "Tomorrow, we're moving!"

Here's the thing. We're leasing the building in which we currently work. The lease expires in just under three months. Can you see where I'm going here?

Yes. If we have three months to move...why do we have to be ready at the drop of the hat?

Silly, silly Captain Monkeypants. I'm doing that thing I shouldn't be doing: I'm thinking too much. Must. Shut. Brain. Down.

I think I might have to work on that. In the meantime, I have to figure out if I need one box or two. I'm also going to drink my coffee and enjoy the rain before the other staff comes dripping in and the office loses its peace.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend.