Several years ago I looked after a friend’s house and took care of their fish while they were on vacation. I don’t remember how many died on my watch, but I wound up buying quite a few to replace them. Luckily, the kids were old enough not to be traumatized by the loss.

A couple years ago I had been saying that it might be nice to have a little fish on my desk, so Janet (my coworker) bought me a little goldfish for my birthday. I named him Nemo. Nemo lasted a few months and then we walked him to the bathroom where we said a few words and flushed him down the toilet. Poor Nemo…

A few months after losing Nemo Mel, another coworker, brought me a blue betta fish to replace Nemo. I named him Finny Fin Finnigan – Finny for short. Bettas are pretty hardy and he seemed to handle things well. Last Friday I noticed he had one bulging eye, which, after a quick internet search, revealed he had a bacterial infection aptly named “popeye”. So, over the weekend I went to Petco and spent seven bucks on fish meds in hopes to get him well. It wasn’t meant to be, as when I arrived at work this morning I found Finny laying sideways at the bottom of the bowl with his face smooshed between the decorative rocks. Popeye killed Finny. And so, once again, I took the walk to the porcelain god and flushed little Finny into fishy heaven. Now my coworkers think I should give up on fish and perhaps try a hamster. I don’t think that’s a good idea though…if a hamster died on a long weekend, that would surely stink up the place. Fish don’t do that.

Now to decide if I can drag myself out of bed to be in at 7:30am or if I’d rather stay until 5:00pm.   Hmmm…

- Papers that were filed were hanging out of the folders by at least an inch so when you pull the folders out to use them it bends, snags, and tears the papers. I went through and fixed all the files. We’ll see how long it lasts this time.

- Everyone staples in the top left…except this one person who staples in the top right. You just have to be different, don’t you?

- While filing, I saw a worker outside that stopped in front of my window. She took a few puffs of her cigarette and then tossed it to the ground lit. She didn’t even bother to step on it. Then she just walked away. I thought it was a smoke-free campus?

I can’t wait for Slushie Night tomorrow…!

The new cubicles are nice but people are so inconsiderate. They don’t realize how far their blabbering mouths travel. Granted, sometimes the gossip and whispers that I hear are rather interesting.

And cell phones…what is it with them? Why is it okay to bring your personal cell phone to work and leave it on all day? And then to have the nerve to leave your post to use my cubicle space for your personal conversation so the boss doesn’t see you…all while your work line is ringing and someone else has to grab it..?? Why doesn’t anyone notice the people that continuously fail to do their job? Ugh.

On a positive note, Janet was able to visit work for the first time since she’s had surgery.  Everyone was really happy to see her and to see how well she’s doing.