Pee much?
I'm working at this company as a receptionist. It sucks. $15 an hour. Yes, that's about $10/hr less than I was getting in SF. But, on the flipside, I do nothing. Where at my old job, a day may have consisted of me surfing the web and eating Kung Pao Chicken from Henry's Hunan (I miss you, you old lug), and the next day I may have spent scaling up the side of the building to the roof to design a makeshift shade for our skylights in the middle of a meeting. Really. True story. Except for the scaling part. There was a ladder. But the ladder was small, and the climb was scary. Sort of.
In this reception area, I'm privy to all sorts of info. Mostly info I don't want to hear. Honestly, I really don't give it much thought that you go to the bathroom 18 times in a seven hour period. The only thing that may possibly bother me about that is that each time you walk back in the office, I have to quickly close this here window that I'm typing in. Or maybe my Scrabble Blast! window. Or Craigslist. Or hotteensexkittens.com.
For some reason though, receptionism (my new word) is quite like bartending. People feel the need to talk to you, ask your advice, from where to send their kids to school to asking the gross national product of East Timor (petroleum) and then put you down in casual conversation: "Yeah, at least I'm not a receptionist!" Or "I'd rather be unemployed than be a receptionist! Ya know what, buddy? Me too! I was unemployed, and it was GREAT! Who grows up saying, Man, I wish I could answer phones all day? I digress.
I'm told the strangest things by the passersby-of-reception desk. "I'm sorry I'm in and out all the time. I have IBS." Yum! "Man, this coffee is running RIGHT through me!" Oh, thanks. Why do they feel the need to justify bodily functions? I could see them saying that if they accidentally crapped on my shoe, but really! I don't care, so don't share!
And, a little tidbit from an experience at school last night. I'm talking to this guy, a nice guy from my Critical Thinking class. I like him, and I think some of the things he says are really good, but he's a lefty the way I was five years ago. He'll just think something is bad because it differs from the left, not because a whole lot of thought has gone into it. As I've mentioned before, being anti-establishment or leftist just merely because it's anti-conservative is really kind of dumb. As someone who does an obscene amount of research into things, I find that people like that are just as empty and bigoted as their opposites, just singing a new song.
He says, "So are you into activism and stuff? And I tell him that since I've moved here I haven't been, really, and I was more into it in SF. I told him about my Anti-Newsom, Pro-Gonzalez crap that I was really into, and mentioned that too bad that we have to vote for Kerry, he may not be the best, but he's better than Bush, etc. So, he says to me "Hmph. I'd just rather vote along with my conscience." I was like, "Holy shit! Did you just question my conscience?" He's like, "Well, we're in a republican state, so there is no reason you can't vote Green here. The democrats will NEVER take Texas." I was like "Well not if you keep thinking that way! We have a democrat woman mayor, dude! In Dallas! Hellooooo?" Questioning MY political conscience...Bah!