Office Zeitgeist

As part of my position at work, I'm responsible for keeping my finger on the pulse of the office. I keep an eye on morale and try to address problems before they get out of hand. Ever since someone brought in a box of magnetic poetry for the break room fridge, this job has become easier.

This morning as I was toasting my bagel, I stopped to read some of the sentences people had created with the words. Here's what my co-workers are thinking today:

• My best cubicle strategy is a non work lunch.
• We want to retire and how.
• Market crash caused my career plans to change.
• Embrace overseas office.
  

Here, Kitty, Kitty

I've been a cat person since I was a child. When I was two, I convinced my parents to take in a stray cat that was begging for food at our door. He was an all black cat, and being a two year old, I named him Blackie. I loved that cat. Sadly, we couldn't take him with us when we moved to California when I was six.

Throughout the rest of my childhood, my parents wouldn't let me have pets. (Except for goldfish, but you can't pet a fish.) When I moved into my own apartment, stray cats started showing up. Naturally, I fed them. One of the strays was a gray tabby cat. I named him Herbert. I fed him for several months before he ran off.

Then a beautiful black cat showed up at my door. I chased her off because she was friendly and well-fed, so I assumed that she was someone's cat and didn't need the food for the strays. She kept coming back like it was some sort of game. I asked around and nobody claimed her, so I named her Ebony and took her in. When I took her to the vet for her shots, I found that she had already been spayed, so she used to be someone's cat. But in the four years I've had her, nobody has come looking for her.

Ebony doesn't like other cats very much, which is sad because I wanted to get another one so she wouldn't be home alone all day. Well, the universe granted me my wish last week.