Labor Day

It's again that day of the year when we don't go to work to celebrate work. Awesome. Too bad it's Satuday.

I'm writing, however, also because I want to take back my old tempo and start this month back on my usual rhythm. Work has been consuming me too much these past weeks, and yesterday it came to the point where I was stressing too much about it, and so I want to cut it before it wires me up and drives me nuts.

The other day I met with this friend of mine, who has been keeping her lies up. I had planned to let her know that I know they are all bullshit and bore me to death, but as she delved into her fantasy world, where she's now dating a multitasking, multidoing, multiart artist. Real or not, I keep wondering why is she so set on this Celebrity Deathmatch thing of hers. We had tea, coke and a terribly done focaccia at the coffeeshop of a hotel close to her work, which is slowly becoming our new regular place. As I listened to her, saw my chance of telling her to cut it off slide in the avalanche of her never ending stories, I wondered how sorry her life must be to pretend the things she pretends to be. She flies on the plane of high power, telling stories about how she, single handedly arranged for her new boyfriend the most exclusive locations and showrooms in a given country because she's so buddy-buddy with the president. I mean, the one time she tried to help me with my trip to Caracas she couldn't even work out a regular hotel reservation, in the hotel where she swore she was a regular... through the Internet. Now, she can't arrange a reservation but she can do the whole logistics for several presentations?

Now, it is Labor Day and no entry this day would be complete without a mention about work, though I already did one. Well, on Friday a group at the office, that call themselves "The Ants" kind of organized a breakfast where everybody had to bring something for it (Greivin and I had to bring tortillas and cheese). It was one of the most disorganized activities I've ever seen, with little clarity about how the whole thing was going to happen, how much food was to be brought, and needless to say that five processes brought food enough to feed Haiti, resulting in lots and lots of bins and packs of food unopened. What a disgrace! We all sat down, ate, and then the disorganized Ants and their band of recruited, equally disorganized special activity team coordinators did an effort to talk to us about "The Building", to which the moving was scheduled for this Monday and in waves from then on.

More bad news came our way: only the overhead compartment could be closed with a key, the credence and the drawer unit can't be locked down. So, evidently all sensitive papers, just as the laptops and files and so must be fitted in a one feet per two feet space... and I'm being optimistic on those measures. So what would happen to all our food? I mean, I keep a stack of oatmeal, powder milk, candy (lots and lots of them, ranging from M&Ms to Milkyway, Three Musketeers, Butterfingers when I find some, Reese's Pieces, lifesaver gummies, nougat candy... among others), cookies, crackers, coffee, pistachio, tea, sugar, cocoa powder... you name it? Store it in open drawers where the night guards can loot it? Because I don't know how does it work at your office, but at ours it does. (Some years ago, some of my coworkers left a post-it on their food asking the robbers not to take their food.) There, other than food are all kinds of meds and toiletteries one keep. Where shall we store those too? Outrage broke soon. People wasn't accepting the builing before, but every time we hear a little bit more of info we want it even less.

Then, some ten minutes after the breakfast disorderly broke off and people returned to their offices, the news came: Health Ministerium didn't approve the building due to the emergency stairwell. It is said it should be on the outside, not the inside. So, the moving is halted, maybe set back a month (yeah, because you can remake a side of a glass building and build an external emergency stairwell for 16 floors in a month. Suuure.). By the afternoon the news was that the National Insurer didn't approve the building. So which one, the Health Ministerium or the National Insurer? Either way the CEO sent an e-mail to all of us claiming to have reviewed all our complains and setting their quality standards high, THEY decided not to accept the builing until it was fit for all of us. Yeah right. ^_^ Some people in high places must be really pissed off at having their toes stepped on. Hey you! Ouch! :-)