Same Girl Down Here

"I bet you anything it's the same girl as the one down here, the one at 1873 Robin's Egg Lane," Chip said.

- Margaret Peterson Haddix, Found

Today was the same as any other workday, except that it began with me awake at 5:30 in the morning, the use of an entirely different work wardrobe, and the careful application of makeup.

At about 7:20, my friendly gate guard greeted me onto the post with, "Have a nice day, Ma'am," and I got to my desk about 7:30 in the morning. As I walked the hall toward my desk, I waved a friendly finger wave to the coworker who I heard had said he would "kick anyone's ass" who caused me a problem. Putting my purse in the locker by my desk, I got to work.

At 9:00 AM, I made my morning trip to have my morning chat with Sandra. When I got there, Peggy was full scale into one of her stories, making sure to include me in her scan.

Not much later, several of us proceeded to scavenge what we needed from the nearby desk of someone who was let go on Friday. I acquired a few dry erase markers and a cubicle wall clip. Using the markers, I finally put my name on the window pane to my cubicle, drawing a border of green hydrangea leaves on a blue vine, two blue roses on black stems with green leaves, and the words, "Bloom where you're planted" directly underneath my name. The wording was tricky, because the outside of the windows are frosted, requiring anything written to be done from the inside and backward.

Having my own contemplative artwork on the wall, I was very much less prone to using the internet to break my boredom while I repeatedly ran application builds and opened and shut my IDE (Integrated Development Environment), in order to launch the Application Server for testing.

The floor of the basement had a puddle near the elevator that I had to try to step around any time I had to use the bathroom. Supposedly, Louisville has set a new 35 year record in rain fall.

At 11:00 AM, I had a lead come over to my desk to review how far I had made it on the project. at 11:15, I discovered that the person who wanted to take me out for lunch had overdone the weekend and wasn't feeling well enough to go out, afraid he would make me sick.

I got to Sandra after I finished my grapes and just as she had the last bite of her lunch. She saved the day with a couple of snacks to tide my over while we had our lunchtime chat.

Overall, just a pretty normal, ordinary day. I did feel a little bit uncomfortable, because I realized that I am now in the process of integrating my working self into my overall dynamic self. I can sense the overall sense of merging into a mature, professional woman. Hopefully, the cognitive dissonance will continue to fade. It certainly had when I got into my car at 3:30 PM to head home and catch up on sleep.

It was a tough internal debate, as I already had a significant day and the new copies of my book were waiting at my door when I got home. But when I woke up 48 minutes ago, refreshed, I decided to go ahead and make an appearance at Sub Rosa.

My babies back home are both a little sick and I am worried about them. Not to mention, I heard that another one of the toilet valves sprung a leak, requiring a plumber call and a night of stress.

Hugs and God Bless,
Sophie