work 'n play

It is with great pleasure that I will tell you about the little details of my place of work which make it wonderful, despite my oft-idleness and long hours:

I like my desk right by the window, where I can look out and see who is arriving for work and watch the Hong Fook Center Bus drive down the small street several times a day. I can watch all the old Asian people living in the tall housing complexes behind the office walking to and from stores, leaving with empty bags and coming back with full ones. I can watch everybody who works in this building and the building next to us take their cigarette breaks under the same tree. I can see how fast the wind is blowing by watching how fast the Volkswagen sign is turning. I can watch the day go by as the shadows change on the textured panels of the housing complex building.

I like walking to the lake on sunny days and sitting on the sloped grass and having a picnic all by my lonesome while reading a book and watching the other workers on their lunch breaks walking briskly around Lake Merritt. There are groups of ladies who are a little overweight who walk in groups around the lake and talk in loud voices like they were coming straight off of the pages in a chick lit book - I like watching them. In the middle of the lakeside park there is an amusement park called Children's Fairyland and a big marble gazebo. There are geese who migrate around the lake and chase you if you have food or get too close to them. I like being one of the grown-ups, strangely enough. I like knowing that everybody is on their lunch hour and I am also on my lunch hour. I like finding local eateries when I forget my lunch and sitting at a table by myself while drinking Diet Coke and reading a book. I like walking with my sunglasses on and swinging my purse bag. I like wearing skirts everyday and feeling more grown-up when I see myself coming towards me when reflected in windows. I don't know how I feel about not recognizing myself.

I like a lot of the people who work here. I like the man name Claude who told me I couldn't take lunch breaks until I had worked here 90 days and once said I had to bring donuts for everybody on Fridays and who then said, "I don't have a serious bone in my butt." I like the older man Pat who has 'PAT'S' labels on a bunch of office equipment like the automated stapler and three-hole punch and who says things like, 'It's not the size of the wand that pulls the rabbit out of the hat' that are cryptic and weird. I like Irene who gives me those looks when she is working with the older Asian guy who makes people feel uncomfortable when he clears his throat every four words and interrogates them about their lives, who has a very good heart but no social skills whatsoever. Most of all I like Brian, who does good impersonations and accents, and Anjela, who believes she's been visited by aliens, who work in the same room with me - I like that they get it, like me, my auntie, my brother, and Michelle do. We have a conspiracy about the number 22 and I have laughed until I cried so many times already in this room with them. I even like the creepy guy who now works in the room with us because it has provided us with Anjela's 'I'm scared' faces and lots of hilarious awkwardness and even more knowing looks within the room. I like that there is hot chocolate mix and an Arrowhead water cooler in the breakroom. I like that we get the SF Chronicle and the accountant who works here has learned to automatically hand me the 'Datebook' section. I like Luis, who has four children and a car with a sticker that says 'Couples for Christ' and next to that a sticker that says 'Kids for Christ,' who told me that he is glad that I work here.

I like the product catalogs and I like the fact that there are floorplans wherever I walk. I like imagining the conversation between the old Asian couple outside my window right now trasnferring the paper bag between them that says 'NEW LOWER PRICES.' The lady looks upset. I like the new lady who works here with the impossibly quiet voice.

I like to push my chair in and turn off my computer at the end of the day. Closure is always a significant moment.