I do still regularly hear from my recently former coworkers (or
cow-orkers, as Scott
Adams prefers to spell it). Yesterday,
UK-born HeyJude dropped me
a quick note, simply saying:
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 1:20 PM
Hi AgingChild,
How are you Mr.?
We miss you around here. Have
you got any news on the job you interviewed so well for? Was thinking about you
and thought I'd touch base.
Take care,
HJ
Sweet! I
answered:
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 2:05 PM
Aww… <insert blush here>
No, those folks finally hired someone else, though it was quite
a challenge… so I turned it around and offered to help them out as a volunteer.
You'll remember, maybe, that their focus is on providing (including through
construction and renovation) housing for the needy – much like Habitat for
Humanity, brought down to the local/community level.
Anyway, they took me up on their offer – but not to wield a
hammer and sawhorse, but rather to assist around their office! So I replied to their outbound executive
assistant just this morning that I'd be happy pitching in a few hours a day,
every few days, if that wouldn't be too little help. As always, we'll
see; answer soon, I hope.
I've been wallpapering the greater [local] area
with my résumé, and there've been some nibbles, but I haven't hooked any decent
fish yet. (This leaves me free to continue painting the house!) Concentration
this week will be on linking up with the various local staffing agencies – some
years back, I somehow impressed one so much they put me in their own
office as the front-desk person! So I've been sending the agencies my résumé,
and there are more to go; I'll follow up with in-person visits, either by
appointment or even unannounced drop-ins.
Meanwhile, you guys and gals have been on my mind also, of
course. (Had a bizarre dream early this morning that Gülden and I were walking through a
shopping center, talking about the job market, when a salesman grabbed me and
put me to work. And I don't do retail anymore! Gülden probably
woke up giggling, with no idea why.) I hope your workload has lightened, Miss
HeyJude – and that all you guys take it easy on the new admin, and don't insist
s/he keep chocolate at their desk.
Bet everyone's lost a few pounds, too. I know I have.
Take care, Miss Funny-Face – and send my happy hellos around;
I'm doing okay and staying busy. Ciao bella!
PS for Aurelio: let him know that a news
commentator on MSNBC made an accidental (and embarrassing) play on words a
couple weeks ago: he was reporting on that terrible bridge collapse, and noting
how incredibly few people had been killed or even injured. He summed it up:
"Those folks on the bridge sure got some big breaks." He paused maybe
a quarter-second and added firmly, "That was not a pun." Yeah,
it was.
Regards,
AgingChild
Must have been a rare slow day at the office. I had HeyJude's
reply fairly quickly:
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 2:35 PM
Hi AC,
Good for you that you
volunteered some of your time to assist around the office. It sounds like
a very worthwhile cause.
I'll be thinking positively
regarding your job hunt and I'm sure you will find something to suit you real
soon.
I've passed the pun from the
MSNBC commentator to Aurelio for his enjoyment (that was definitely a
bad pun if ever I heard one).
Take care & good luck with
the house painting.
Best,
:)))
H. A. Jude
Finally, after getting yesterday's blog straightened out, I sent
back:
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 9:15 PM
Hey, same to you!
I'd've responded sooner, but I was struck by the muse, and had
to put up a blog that'll probably make you cry (with my apologies in advance,
of course):
I typed it up easily, and quickly had it posted online around
3:00… then spent the next six bleedin' hours fixing some really
frustrating formatting issues (I have got to learn more HTML and
XML coding!!). Now it looks great… and the world (i.e., both my occasional
readers) must think I'm depressed – which I'm not. I just wish the blasted
blog-provider had something a little more user-friendly. And this is why I
didn't open your email until just a few minutes ago.
[HeyJude had also asked me about a piece of office equipment that
was driving a coworker nuts. But since I'm several weeks out of practice with
the machine (though I'd trained it to cooperate), I couldn't offer a
clear/simple solution. I recalled, though, that Woodie, another coworker (and
USN CPO), had a
similar piece of equipment at his own desk:]
Way back in my day, the manual was on top of the file cabinet
behind my desk – though I may have put it in a file folder, before I grabbed my
cardboard parachute and jumped out the window (Mick pushed). Woodie, being more
organized than his admin was, should have the manual ready to offer… and tell
him to salute and say "Ma'am! Yes Ma'am!" as he hands it over… or I'm
going to sink his battleship.
Have a great remainder of the week! And let your barmy brother know that I'm still looking for
his beer. Toodles, poodles!
Regards,
AgingChild
HeyJude can hug easily via email; here's what I received from her
this morning:
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 10:47 AM
Hey AgingChild.
Thank you Mr. and don't worry
about the delay in response. I know you have other things to do other than chit
chat with me via e-mail.
Unfortunately for us, our Mr.
Wood is on vacation so we don't have our usual resource. Anyway, it's just not
the same around here without you. Everyone still talks about how Acey used to
do things and it's just such a mess and so not much fun anymore.
I'm going to the U.K. tomorrow
for a week to attend my dear Aunt (God Mother's) funeral. I'll definitely get
in touch when I come back.
Keep plugging away at the job
market. You will find something that is suitable soon, I'm sure.
Take care,
HJ
See what I mean?
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 12:18 PM
You are a sweet friend. (And fortunately for your family, you
don't have any single sisters who might be as kind to ornery Americans!)
Speaking of family, of course – I'm sorry to hear about your
godmother. Will the time spent with family reminiscing over her, sharing warm
memories and tears and prayer, also allow you a moment or two to give our
cousin Lady Haw-Haw [a delightfully wacky friend in the
London office] a wave? If so, do please pass her a personal hello from me. If
I had time, and were a bit closer, I'd give you a box of Cheerios for her.
And re the office – I know; I miss the crew, and the work, and
the regular silliness… just not the commute and the horrid early-to-bed /
early-to-rise hours I needed to maintain. I do wish I'd been able to convince
Mr. FedEx and Mr. UPS to bubble-wrap the building and mail it up to [here] (using real stamps, of course). Ah, well – likely they'd
actually considered using the interoffice mail system, but discovered it would
have resulted in the whole thing landing somewhere in Sri Lanka, or Malaŵi!
Regards,
AgingChild
I'm a bit clueless on greater-UK geography, so HeyJude set me
straight:
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 1:44 PM
Hi Aging,
I unfortunately won't be in
Haw-Haw's neighborhood. It would have been great to meet her in person but the
funeral is in Banbury, Oxon and quite far from Gosport, Hants.
[I know "Hants" is "Hampshire"… but the word
still looks like "Pants" to me… which also means something a little
different to the British.]
I'm definitely planning to make
a trip next year though and will try to coordinate a meeting with her. She is
so funny.
Have a good day today and
talk soon,
:)))
HeyJude
Yeah, it was fun working there – ignoring the burnout of the long
commute, of course. HeyJude's notes got me to thinking about who else there has
a good, reliable tension-busting sense of humor. Former sub-boss Kendra comes to
mind; though she always seemed on the edge of burnout herself, she's a
quarter-century veteran of that firm, and likely works harder than anyone else.
And her hyena-bark of a laugh (often at herself), heard easily from halfway
across the building, was so contagious that I would get to giggling no matter
what I was focused on at the moment.
Aurelio's great, too, and will go far – he's another hard-working,
hard-playing person… though often more likely to fall into silence or
seriousness than silliness… which isn't a bad thing. I hope he's been keeping
his pun-muscles flexed.
I'll have to suggest to HeyJude that she not overlook Priscilla when in
need of a laugh. A contemporary of Kendra's, Priscilla's mix of sweet maternal
personality and ornery youngish never-grew-up fifty-something joke-cracker is
what that office still could use.
Just a few days before I left, Priscilla returned to work after
spending most of a month in Italy. One morning she paused at the
general-notices bulletin board by my desk, where I'd posted a reminder about
that week's informal lunchtime guest-speaker event, titled "The Friendly
Workplace".
Priscilla glanced at the notice while looking at the cafeteria
menu, then snorted and said – pardon me, gentle readers – "'The Friendly
Workplace'? What the he||'s that sh!t?" …and started
giggling as she walked away.
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