Today was Administrative Professionals' Day, formerly named Secretaries' Day. Yours truly, as is likely
obvious from other postings here, is an Administrative Assistant (Senior) to a
corporate director (and staff of nearly twenty) for a major, world-spanning
firm headquartered not far from the Washington DC / Baltimore / Philadelphia megalopolis.
Traditionally in the office, the
department gets together and presents their admin with a small gift, a card,
maybe flowers. Previous years (with various firms) have seen me receiving
various nice little pieces of office gear, and so on – more than once I've been
the recipient of a nice, logo-bearing coffee cup… which I turn over to my
mother (or to brother Sarge, who works as an engineer for directly competing
firm), who is a coffee drinker. And this gives me to opportunity to say in mock
outrage: "On this day of all days, I got mugged!"
Naïve me… I'd forgotten today was
that day, so was puzzled (though delighted) to see one of our tête-à-tête
tables set up with a platter of sliced fruit, box of "donut holes",
another box (yes) of fresh-brewed coffee (which I still don't drink). I
snagged a hole on the way to my desk… and was surrounded by most of the
department at my next pass by the table.
Besides a thoughtful card and some
beautiful flowers (mostly deep burgundy tulips) direct from Priscilla's garden,
they also presented me with a nice insulated canvas bag, obviously designed
both to keep a six pack (of soda, beer being a no-no in the
office) cold, and show prominently our corporate logo.
"Thanks, all of you," I
said sincerely, and then pointed at my face. "And all this red is sunburn
from Sunday's 5K, not a blush," I added, blushing.
Aurelio, my Italian coworker, asked
unwisely whether I might have a pun for the occasion. "Well… I just have
to say" – and I waved the insulated bag over my head – "that I
couldn't work for a cooler group of people."
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