Braindump: Work Vs. Life

WORK


Convo 1:
Me: You speak Spanish?
S: Yeah, I first started learning Spanish when I was working at the Spanish Embassy in Senegal. I didn’t learn it well enough there so I moved to the Dominican Republic for 3 months and now I speak it fluently.
I work with way cool people.

Convo 2:
I helped my 65 year old boss set up his first Gmail account. It went like this:
Me: Type in gmail.com
SBB: Hold on, I must type in bing first, I always go to bing first.
Me: Ok, fair enough
*Sigh*, oh Microsoft, look what you’ve done.


Convo 3
Me: Do you know where you’re going for your eye surgery
SBB: Yes, Yes…Bellevue
Me: Do you know where in Bellevue
SBB: oh ummm, ahhh, yeah, I have it written down on a piece of paper…..some where.
*Sigh* This is going to work out well.


 They have 2 words they like to say around here a lot.  “Nomenclature” and “consortium/consortia.” Just doesn’t roll off the tongue enough to sound smart. It just sounds like you’re not a very smart person trying to use really big words. Which, is a personal pet peeve.


SBB told me I was a, “good writer, very entertaining and that [I] should write.” That is the best complement someone can give me I think.

Things that make me sweaty:
 • Meeting new people
• When my boss speaks Spanish to me
• The 84 items in my inbox for a woman I assist who I have yet to meet. She returns to work on Monday.
• More acronyms, less understanding
• When my bosses speak science and I speak English.
• Meeting the man who discovered HIV next week.

The downside:
Remember how I was on vacation for 3 months and got really really tan. Like, really tan. Now my tan is fading and I’m peeling. Still…after 4 weeks. It’s so gross. This job is really crimping my tan.


LIFE:

BFF used to call me at work from the streets of NYC and yell at me (I mean yell as in raised her voice and scream and shout but not in anger, just as general conversation). I used to yell back and have more liberties with my language choice. She still calls to yell at me but now I can’t yell back. These people don’t know me well to understand that my best friend is a batshit crazy tranny lesbian living in NYC and when we yell at each other, although it seems often unkind if you were a spectator, it’s all out of love and comedic purpose. She says stuff like this:
• “Why is it whenever we meet up there is always a hotel room involved. And we’re not even dating.”
• “So, now I get to go back to living like a church mouse…like I love to do.”
• “Do you know I have you listed as Bill Gates in my phone. That way, if you ever call me from work it’s say Bill Gates is calling me. Which is kinda true.” This is not actually true at all.


At book club this week with a group 40 somethings, mostly whom I don’t know and they know even less about me (a consequence of being an introvert). My favorite quotes of the night:
• S looks right at me, smiles knowingly and says, “The quite girls have all the secrets.” Fact.
• Without any prompt or knowing of my pipedreams, a woman who has never met me looks me over and says, “You look like a librarian. If you let your hair down, threw your glasses of and ripped your clothes off it would be very hot.” Kinda of awkward, maybe true.


Well, I’m off for the weekend to spend quality time with girlfriends, work on this tan and not think about curing AIDS.


XO, C