Long day. I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I compensated by drinking a little too much coffee. About a month or so ago, I gave up coffee cold turkey. I had realized that for at least the past four years, I had coffee every day. When I was on the meal plan, coffee was free, and I always felt like I had to be at 110%, and it was an easy way to get there. When I was off the meal plan for the first time, I immediately bought a coffee machine, to keep up my addiction (actually, funny story, I wasn't going to buy a coffee machine, but I accidentally bought ground coffee instead of instant coffee on our first shopping excursion. Mixing ground coffee with hot water didn't go so well. So, anyway, I decided that if I was going to be serious about this coffee thing, I needed to be drinking something better than instant).

But, I was on the subway a few months ago, thinking about coffee, and I can give up coffee whenever I want, or I'm addicted. I refused to accept that fact that I was addicted, so I resolved that I would have to prove it. The first few days were rough. I was a zombie at work, and I had these awful headaches. But, after a week, I was raving to everyone about how great I felt, both mentally (because I had overcome this supposed addiction) and physically (because I was not longer dependent on that caffeine rush and I was more in tune with my body's natural energy).

That lasted for about 2 weeks. After I had sufficiently proven to myself that I was not an addict, I let myself slip back into being an occasional coffee drinker. I mean, there's nothing wrong with getting a hazelnut latte and sitting to read in starbucks on the weekend, is there? And, my boyfriend had just bought be an espresso maker and coffee bean grinder as a present, so, I couldn't just not use those, right? I'm still trying to find a balance. But, one good thing did come out of this whole thing. I think my caffeine tolerance went way down, so now even just a little bit of coffee will get me wired.

Guy in next cube is always saying something either wildly inappropriate or awkwardly corny.

Vacation

-How was your vacation
-Busy
-Where'd you go
-California and Chicago
-Family?
-...
-Well, we should catch up later

Kitchen

I sit right next to the kitchen. Shortly after I started, a fridge cleaning initiative was started. There is a posted list, and every Friday afternoon, two employees are assigned to clean out the refrigerator. Even though that was almost 6 months ago, my time hasn't come yet. But, I think that's because I helped out with the first fridge cleaning. That was by far the worst, because I don't think the fridge had ever been cleaned. There was gross black sticky gunk on the floor, and lots of rotting forgotten food. (How do you forget about food like that?).

Today they were talking about starting a dish rotation. We're pretty good about cleaning our dishes, but they hardly make it from the drying rack to the cabinets.

Not only do we work together, but we have to deal with all of these domestic issues.

Introduction

Less than a year ago, I left the idyllic arboretum campus that had been the scene of my greatest triumphs and my deepest heartaches over the previous four years. I got a job in a city where I knew hardly anyone, and the friends that had touched my life in so many ways were likewise dispersed to disparate corners of the country. And so, I embarked on a quest to make a life for myself outside of the ivory towers, and to find meaning in a life that wasn't devoted to studying, writing papers, and general intellectual pursuits. Don't get me wrong, I find my job intellectually challenging and stimulating, and I have found that my co-workers are extremely smart and interesting. But, the community that exists in my company's office (and I suspect it is not so different from other offices, regardless of the type of company), is inherently different from any I have experienced. I have given a lot of thought to what it means to be a social and intellectual being in a modern day office. In this blog, I want to explore both the deep and the trivial aspects of office life. In doing so, I hope to make sense of the place where I spend 40+ hours a week.