MIA

Yeah well you've heard it all before: a busy week on a busy desk. I appreciate the busy desks, because I like it when my brain is twisted into a pretzel, and it makes me appreciate the not-so-busy desks a little bit more. The EO I am covering this week is a flipping star. I told her branch manager today that sometimes after a week like this I praise God that I get to leave next week. I used to have a desk like this - no wonder I was a raving drunk, angry, bitter, swearing like a sailor (oh wait I still do that). I wonder how the heck this girl does it.

This particular branch I was in, in Beaverton, can be fun to work in, not just because of the people there - and I really like them all - but because working in Beaverton I tend to have conncections to most of the clients. Back in the day when I worked in the Raleigh Hills branch of Brand X, we used to play a game called "Six degrees of Joyce J". In the 2 1/2 minutes or so it took for me to take their ID, log it into my notary log, and have them sign that, I could discern just how I was connected to the customer. Then I would get up, walk out to the copy machine to photocopy the ID, and mention to the assistants "He was the DJ at my sister's wedding", or "She grew up the next block over". Great fun. Being at this Beaverton branch, I get a similar experience. This week I worked with the sister-in-law of a roommate of mine from LA in 1986, the mom of a guy I used to smoke dope with in high school, and, while monitoring the EO's email, saw a couple of emails from a kid that I had a crush on for about 3 days in the first grade. Yes, 1971.

I also hit my head on a cupboard pretty hard by the copy machine. It still hurts. About 4 years ago I was a bit concerned that I didn't know if I could survive another head injury (remember the drinking and bitterness? I fell down a lot back then). Turns out, I can, but, you know, it's anybody's guess as to how many more I will.

I came home every night just exhausted and actually fell asleep on the sofa twice this week, something I only do on weekends (and with great intention). I also slept all the way through to the alarm daily. Thursday morning we had a company-wide meeting at the MAC at 7am (again, I won no prizes. There was only one, an iPhone, and I am still genuinely shocked that I didn't win it), but we all met at the branch at 6:15am to carpool over (parking at the MAC can suck), so I got up extra early (which for most of you it appears I might have gotten up about the time you were going to bed). Actually the meeting was fun. I like those things. I like hanging out with the entire company. Some people don't. I don't get that.

Anywhooo, I just wanted to explain my MIA-ness. I didn't get hit by a bus, or jet off to some exotic land, or get arrested - I was just coming home, putting on my houseclothes, sitting on my sofa and staring off into space, trying to de-pretzel my brain.