First day blues greys

So I survived the first day at the new job. Not much to it, obviously - we were supposed to have brought our cubicle stuff, but I didn't bother, so I had nothing to do for most of the morning. I read a huge prospectus about an ongoing project that will shortly consume my working life. I figured out my e-mail and programmed my voice mail. I started a binder of all the orientation materials.

I must still be depressed over saying good-bye to my dysfunctional work family last week - now it's hard to remember why I felt I had to jump up suddenly and transfer. If I second-guess myself too hard, I'll get really sad. Must have been the move - I didn't want to commute as far as I would have had to, starting next December. Yeah. That was it. Case closed.

My cubicle is decorated in grey. Everything is light grey and dark grey, with black accents. And for a newer building, pretty poorly lit. Clearly must bring my box of cubicle good cheer and good task lighting today.

Don't know enough about my new co-workers yet to snark about them. There is one woman, also a new hire, who is very, very cheerful. She's cheerful to the point of pathology. I swear I saw the cords standing out on her neck. It got kind of creepy, so I hope it was all just first-day jitters and she'll calm down soon. It's hard to imagine how she could have risen to this level in state service without having been culled from the herd one day and stomped to death.

Comments

[Dan]

That's the thing about the dysfunctional family, office or otherwise: It's still your family. Ah, well. You can always hope that you've landed in the midst of an equally dysfunctional group with equal entertainment possibilities (entertaining at least for your dysfunctional blog family).

[Anthony]

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss!
We ARE NOT a dysfunctional blog family. Not once have I ever scraped toast down the sink because it isn't done properly! And why is our son seeing that...ahem...Jewish therapist? (Extra Daisy points to whomever spots the reference!)
And NO BOATING!

[pam]

Hmm, you got me. Prince of Tides? Ordinary People?

[gj]

Anthony, it should be to "whoever" not "whomever." Although it is the object of the preposition, the nominative case is used because the phrase "to whoever" becomes the subject of the verb "spots." That takes precedent over the objective case rule.
Just didn't think you should go through life not knowing that.
Pam's mother

[gj]

To clarify,
the object of the preposition "to" is the noun clause "whoever spots the reference." Noun clauses can perform any function of nouns and a clause has to have a subject.
Pam's mother

[pam]

Thanks, Mom. By and large, we're not too anal about grammar around here, but we appreciate your input.

In related grammar news, I have already been asked to edit the meeting minutes of the office technician. I'm cringing - the tech's grammar must be seriously bad if they've sought out a relative stranger on her second day.

[pam]

And look! I can blog at work!

[Jo]

Watch the cheerful co-worker. She's the one likely to go postal. On the other hand, she's also likely to have the best connections. Is she grinding her teeth and unable to stop licking her lips? Watch carefully.

[Anthony]

Isn't it terrible that we have totally internalized the concept of "going postal" that we don't even recognize the inherently destabalizing concept of postal workers...for Eris's sake POSTAL WORKERS!...as potential killers?
What's next? Psycho day care center employees with Uzis? "Oh watch out, she'll go all KinderKare on you if you cross her at the coffee machine?"
Sheesh, what kind of culture have we bred?

[pops]

And how is the yak making the adjustment?

BTW - Anthony - we really don't mind that you went to the new Meryl Streep movie just so long as you're still working on getting all of us a bulk discount on iPod Nanos. Oh and please make sure the engraving on Wende's says, "ON YOUR BAR MITZVAH, LOVE, BUBBE."

Thanks.

[Anthony]

I don't go to MS movies. When I was at YSD, one of our (dramaturg) jobs was to work on the inhouse magazine and one PARTICULAR job was to handle the annual alumni update register. Which meant we were parceled out a bunch of YSD alumni (ie, some big stars) names and home addresses and given a form letter and told to send off the annual adress update form to the person in question so we would know where to find them the next time they won a Tony or an Oscar. So I found myself with the R-S pile and guess whose HOME ADDRESS was in my hot little hands? La Streep herself! For one dizzy moment I thought of how much $$$ I could make selling this very valuable bit of info off, but calmer heads prevailed and I merely posted the slip inside the envelope, adressed it and moved on. (Of course, I really wanted the W pile so I could let Sigourney Weaver know how much I thought about her brandishing firepower in Aliens but some other colleague of mine got the honors that day!)
I'm sure nowadays this is all done by email but for one brief moment I felt tlike every sleazy guy in Hollywood selling "Maps of Stars Houses" to the tourists!!

[scupper]

I hear TELOS is coming out with the '06 coworker models early. Less wiring I think, except around the feet. Watch out if they wear bunny slippers. That could be a sign that Yul Brenner is in the elevator.

[GraceD]

Praise Jesus, you can blog from work again, Pammy. No more going the back route through flickr.