Friday, May 24, 2002. Entry #156

Something weird is going on at work today.

My desk pretty much faces right through the window into my boss Frank's office. Out of the corner of my eye, I can always see who he's talking to, what he's doing. All-important knowledge when considering a little Friday afternoon slacking.

I spied something kind of disturbing this morning. Lara, our top writer, and who is also going for our vacant Senior Writer position, was in there chatting with Frank. Nothing odd about that, but my attention was drawn to his office again a few minutes later when I saw him close his door and draw the blinds. Before the view was cut off, I saw Lara sitting leaned over with her face in her hands. She looked like she was crying.

About ten minutes later, she came out, and darted off down a hallway, I suspect towards the washroom.

About 15 minutes after that, she came back into the bullpen from another route, grabbed her bag and coat, and left without saying a word to anyone. She hasn't returned as of several hours later.

I know for a fact that she didn't get the Senior Writer position, and Ben, our other writer, said they had known as well. If she had been laid off, we would know by now. Typically they announce lay-offs to the rest of us a couple hours after informing the poor victim. So they should have done it by now if they were going to do it.

It would be ridiculous to lay Lara off. We only have two qualified writers, and she's been spending her time filling in the Senior Editor slot. We need her a whole lot.

I'm guessing she either didn't know they planned to hire someone else, or she had sort of denied it to herself.

I feel awful for her. Corporate shenanigans are stupid, and no one is talking. Frank stopped by my desk to sign my timesheets, and I asked him if Lara was okay. He said, "Yes," but left it at that. No details.

And I'm not going to know anything more until Monday at least by now. Crap.

I got home yesterday to a big surprise. On the second of her three days off in a row, Lisa devoted the entire day to cleaning our apartment.

Now our apartment is never very tidy, but in the last few weeks, we've let the place slide into the worst state it's EVER been in. Seriously gross.

I still have to finish the kitchen and the computer room (which are basically my responsibilities anyway), but the rest of the place is pretty much spotless.

I don't understand why we are such slobs. We can keep everything straight for about two weeks, and then everything deteriorates.

We don't like living as slobs. We bitch and complain all the time about it, but I can't figure out why we do it, or how to fix it on a permanent basis.

Laziness is a part of it, yes. It's so much easier to dump my pockets onto the table when I get home, than to sort all the junk and debris to where it should go. The same goes for bags, books, dishes... It all just adds up so fast.

Then you throw in the animals. Their little environs get cleaned regularly, so they're fine, but the debris Pippen tosses around the apartment has to be seen to be believed. More accurately, it has to crunch under your feet to be believed. And the cats certainly add their share.

Anyway.

It was a wonderful surprise, and I was very effusive in my praise to my dear sweetie. And I managed to my normal smart aleck comments too.

It's the least I can do.

Five years ago, I was banned from planning in this one live-action role-playing game.

This was a game in which I was one of the original members, so I was a bit crushed. I'm not going to go into the details in length (because the people involved are now making great strides at getting past all the bitterness of the time), but a lot of it was a result of an ugly breakup and people choosing sides. There were other factors, but that was the biggest catalyst. Ugliness happened, and I got the boot.

Anyway. Times change, and this last weekend I came back to the game for a cameo appearance. The current scenario is allowing dead characters from the past to reappear, so I got to reprise my very first role in the game (the one character I've missed most over the years).

To excellent results, if I may say so myself. I creeped some people out, made others bust out laughing, and got right back into the swing of the game. I was even encouraged from several different people to make a full return to active play.

I know it's wrong, but I feel so damned happy about this. I'm already involved in a number of other games, so I'm not likely to continue playing (although I probably will as long as the reason for my guy being there continues), but it feels so good to have that last bit of ugliness over.

I was very bitter about being kicked out, but totally denied it to myself. I claimed I didn't need the game, it wasn't that important anyway... All real and valid reasons, but it still hurt.

And it doesn't hurt anymore. A wound that I didn't know I had is now healed.

On TV: The season is now over for all our favorite shows. Damned if I know what we're going to do with ourselves now. Well, another edition of 'The Mole' begins Tuesday. That'll be fun.

One Year Ago Today: I was still on hiatus, but in 1738, the Methodist Church was established.

Mom Rating: 3 out of 5. Our apartment should be a lot cleaner. Mom taught me that much. Well, she tried really hard anyway.

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Take me home, big fella