Having a Ball Breaking the Chain

People watching at work

My new job has introduced me to a whole world of new characters, some just bit players, some that provide comic relief and then there's the drama. I'm walking a fine line between wanting to put down roots and remembering that there's a good chance I'll be leaving in a few months, never to see any of them again. The former, the desire to make new friends, is edging ever so slightly past the urge to play it safe. Whatever I do, I will still be spending 40 hours a week with these people for at least the next four and a half months, so it's much more fun to push the banter limits and see who responds.

My cubicle-mate is a classic nerd, and has the greatest dry sense of humor. He's mostly quiet around everyone else, but makes deliciously wry comments when it's just the two of us. When I call him a nerd, it's a term he embraces. The other day, someone said he should have a beanie with a propeller on top and he said he already does. He "gets" all my puns and has begun to actually wait for them, secure in the knowledge that I'm simply unable to pass up an opportunity to engage in really bad word-play.

One of my co-workers is the classic aging hippie earth-mother type. Wild, curly Janis-Joplin hair shot through with gray, wire-rim specs, Birkenstocks and all. And another is a perfect soccer-mom persona. There are a couple of young mothers who are constantly torn between wanting the career and wanting to be home with their babies (been there, felt that heartache) and a quiet older man who lives alone in what you can tell by his cubicle is a really neat apartment that houses hundreds of books. There's also the guy who everyone plays pranks on, and teases like a younger brother and the grandmotherly older woman who gives everyone advice,

The one that bothers me a little is a single mother in her mid thirties. She's obviously bright and she's very attractive. She's ambitious, going to school two nights a week in addition to working full time and raising her son. She has everything she needs to climb the career ladder, and yet, I'm willing to bet she'll never get beyond middle management. Why? Because she dresses as if she's going clubbing every day. Four inch high sling-back heels, tight, slinky dresses cut way low (and she has quite an impressive rack), hair loose and long. She looks good, but out of place. The way she looks and dresses is what you notice about her, not her ideas or how well she does her job. She's getting in her own way, and it's sad, 'cause I'm sure she has no idea she's doing it. If I knew her better, or was a little braver, I would tell her what I think, but I know damned well that it's not my business to try to fix something that she doesn't even think is broken.

So I play my part in the comedies and dramas and try not to get too attached to the place. It's easier to pull up roots if they don't grow too deep.

posted by Sheryl @ 10:19 PM