Strongly Worded

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad, You Take The Rest And There You Have The Facts of Life

The Good:
Another really cool thing that has just happened is that, after months and months of talking about it, my co-worker finally ordered a coffee maker for our office. Until now, one of us has made at least one daily run to procure either overpriced coffee ($3.50 for a small latte!) or affordable coffee ($1.84 for brown water). Again and again, we discussed how much money and time we are wasting on this effort, and how we should really invest in an office coffee maker. Many, many discussions ensued about the cost of various models, whether our program budget (in the hundreds of thousands) could cover the cost ($24.99), and whether it made more sense to order a coffee maker online (and pay for shipping) or go to Target and physically buy one.

At some point, this became too annoying to bear, and I went to Target myself, bought the damn thing, and lugged it to work. (And I should mention that it was surprisingly heavy and awkward to haul on the subway). Everyone oohed and aahed at my initiative. But: as soon as we opened it, we noticed a manufacturer’s flaw, and I then had to schlep it back on the subway and make another special trip to return that bad boy. Luckily, I really enjoy going to Target. The upshot: is that we ordered another coffee maker online (with Amazon prime free shipping) and my former-barista-co-worker supplied some kick-ass java and now we can have as much iced or hot coffee as our little hearts (or jonesing neurons) desire. It really does fill me with joy and this week I’ve already reallocated the $17.50 that I was formerly wasting on weekly coffee. I spent it on an extraordinarily overpriced Ethiopian dinner ($16.95).

The Bad:
A much less thing cool thing also happened. Remember how I mentioned another former temp in our office has achieved permanent status? Which is all great for her but rather hard for me, given that I’m still a contractor and shelling out more than $130 a week on health care, plus trying hard to be agile without a job description or title? At the college where I work, all the offices have names on the doors. And today I was actually asked to call Facilities and get them to letter her name on the door. Note that there are three other permanent staff members who are perfectly equipped to handle such a procedure, but I was chosen to do it. And when I asked my dear and wise friend Banter Boy about whether this is worse than a slap in the face, he sensibly asked if I had ever been slapped in the face. Since I have not (thank God), I am agree that I’m unqualified to draw that kind of comparison. But he agreed that the situation sucks.

The Rest:
Forthcoming.

Posted by Dori at 8:03 AM