Interlopers in the Office!

This has definitely been a week of Interlopers. We have had three Interlopers from our 'west coast' office in the buildin. Our 'west coast' office is actually the company with whom we merged. They've been here for the past two day and are leaving tonight.

I actually haven't had to deal with them much more than a perfunctory hello on the day they arrived. They've been meeting with the software team who develops the product that I, personally, consider to be our most useless, even if it is the most developed. I shouldn't really say that since it's quite popular but it's the sort of product that does what it's supposed to do. It could always do more but, to me, there comes a point when I think it's time to back off and put some of the resources into our other two products. I mean, the team who works on it spends hours in meetings to talk about improvements and tweaks. Last week, I sarcastically asked if they were going to make it sing or something because it just seems a little…excessive.

Still, I guess they're all dedicated. That's…good. I'd like to say I'm dedicated but, well, Captain Monkeypants doesn't lie. She's not exactly dedicated as much as dependent upon her paycheck. I do my job and I think I do it well but nothing about my company makes me feel like I want to work harder than I do. Some days, I work harder than others. Most of the time, I get my work done but I don't go above and beyond. It's not that I don't like to go above and beyond. I do when I feel like it's worth it. With this job, if I do any work, it basically gets muddled with that of my coworker who, somehow, always ends up with the credit. There's no room for upward climbing in my current position. I'm stuck. It would be ok if I got any fulfillment out of what I do all day but most of the time, I'm looking for things to do.

On the plus side, I do find creative ways to engage my mind while I'm working. I often plan meals, as I've mentioned before. Sometimes, I make up stories in my head. Sometimes, I just observe. Which leads me back to The Interlopers. There are two and a half of them. The 'half' is actually going to be our president when our current one leaves in December so, for the time being, he's only half an Interloper. I'll take away the half when he becomes our president. Either that or I'll give him full Interloper status, depending on how he behaves.

The Interlopers are interesting. They flew in on Monday night and are leaving this evening, as I mentioned. For the two days, one of them brought his guitar in an airline-proof carrying case.

He left the guitar sitting in one of the spare cubicles in our area. It's been pretty much sitting there for two days. I have to walk by it every time I go to the bathroom or I go to the kitchen to get coffee or when I go back to the kitchen to wash my coffee mug or when I go to the kitchen to get some ice for my water. Yes, I go to the kitchen a lot. It's one of my methods for keeping my mind engaged.

Anyways, this guitar has been disturbing me. For one thing, I'm intrigued as to why it's in our office. I keep wondering if the Interloper to whom it belongs is going to suddenly start serenading us, troubadour style. So far, he hasn't. I admit, I'm quite disappointed.

So, that leads me to wonder how attached he must be to that guitar since he's here for just over two days and he brought it with him. This lead me to wonder if he was one of those weirdos who slept with his guitar next to him on his pillow because he liked to know where it was at all times.

That gave me a funny mental picture of a guitar tucked up in bed. I laughed. I couldn't share it with anyone because sometimes, my mental field trips are not as entertaining for my coworkers as they are for me.

Yet, when I came in this morning, the first one in the office, that guitar was still here. So he couldn't be that weird that he slept with his guitar. So, now I'm back to wondering why he brought it with him. I started to wonder if he was like Desperado, carrying a gun in there to protect himself. Then I realized that he'd never have been allowed a Desperado guitar case on a plane.

But he did bring it on a plane. Me, personally, when I'm going on a trip, I try to minimize luggage. For one thing, it's a pain in the bottom. Secondly, these days, you have to be so careful how much luggage you take otherwise you're stuck with exorbitant fees for extra luggage.
He must really like that guitar.

My coworker- one that I like- said he was playing it yesterday. He was sitting outside strumming, not troubadouring. I stand by my opinion that it's quite a dedication to the art of guitar playing if you bring your instrument 2,000 miles each way for two days of travel.
In addition to the Mystery of the Guitar, the Interlopers also have a hookah.

Yes, you read that right….a hookah. They left it in our kitchen while they worked. I'm sure they have a jolly good reason for having a hookah but, well, it just seems like a bit of an odd thing to leave in the kitchen of a place you're interloping, don't you think?

Then again, after doing a minor bit of research, it seems that there are some hookah bars here in Cincinnati. Perhaps it's because I've never been a smoker but I just don't see the appeal of them. I always thought they were for more, uh, illegal substances than tobacco but according to Wikipedia which, as we all know, is always correct, they're used for tobacco. In some cities where smoking is illegal in public places, a tobacco substitute is used.

Regardless of what is smoked or where it is smoked, it's just odd that there's a hookah in our kitchen.

Also, in our kitchen, as a result of The Interlopers, is a whole lot of leftover pizza. It's not even cheap pizza from Papa Johns or even Costco, it's from a local New York style place that charges a lot more per pizza than a chain. It's good pizza but I personally don't think it's as good as some of my coworkers do.

Regardless, there's a lot left because it was ordered for the Interlopers as well as the people with whom they were meeting. There were nine of them, altogether.

They ordered four large pizzas and an enormous amount of breadsticks.

That's a lot of pizza. Their large pizzas are large, if you know what I mean. That's almost half a pizza per person. That's a lot of pizza.

There were quite a few leftovers but not as many as I would have expected. They ate two and a half pizzas and a lot of breadsticks.

Those Interlopers are keeping my mind engaged. In summation, I now have this mental image of troubadours who smoke the hookah and eat an enormous amount of pizza.

Then again, depending on what was in the hookah, the pizza might just go with the territory. The guitar too.

I have to admit, I can't wait to see if they come back. They're keeping me entertained, at least. They just don't know it. It's probably best that they keep it that way.

But I'm still curious about that guitar…

Happy Thursday!