work

He ain’t heavy, he’s my quill brother


Like my new cubicle? 😉

Today’s bit of Forgotten English — you maybe thought I forgot about this desk calendar? You would not have been entirely wrong — is “quill-driver,” meaning:

A scrivener, a clerk; satirical phrase similiar to “steel bar driver,” a tailor….A clerk, scribe, or hackney writer. Brother of the quill, an author.

The Brotherhood of the Quill. I like that.

Anyway, it’s hard to believe was only our second day in the new office. Little kinks in the system continue to be worked out — or not — and that extends also to my commute. I took a train to Jamaica, then a connecting to Hunterspoint Avenue, where I took the subway (two stops) direct to Grand Central. Except for some rain, that worked out for me, about an hour door to door. Maybe an hour and change; I’m not yet convinced it saved me any significant amount of time over a twenty-five-minute walk from Penn Station. But still, not having to walk that in the rain…?

I got myself a little turned around taking the subway back to Penn Station this evening, taking the shuttle to Times Square and then walking around until I finally stumbled onto the A downtown. I missed my train home by literally one minute. I think I’ll do better with that part tomorrow; it’s on the return trip where I’m really fighting time and distance, and where the subway could probably really help me.

Of course, the plan remains to find someplace where I only have to take the subway in.

The new digs

I had a doctor’s appointment this morning, so I got to sleep just a little bit later than usual. I left the house in what I thought was plenty of time to make a 9:15 appointment, but I ran into a ridiculous amount of traffic, all of it apparently headed to the parkway exit right before mine. What should have been a fifteen or twenty-minute drive, even with morning rush-hour traffic, took the better part of half an hour. And then I made a slightly wrong turn getting off the parkway — if you turn right instead of left, and go in the exact opposite direction, that still counts as “slightly,” right? — and drove straight into even more traffic. I made a u-turn when I, finally, realized I’d gone off-course, and arrived at the doctor’s office only about ten minutes late. I signed in and took a seat.

And proceeded to sit for the next hour. I had brought a book along, when I thought I might get there early and need it, but then when I ran late, I left it in the car. So I basically just sat, occasionally posting to Twitter about how I was just sitting. After an hour of it, I went back up to the desk to ask what was going on…and discovered that they’d lost the sign-in sheet with my name on it. They hadn’t known I was there.

So anyway, we got that cleared up. And shortly thereafter I actually went inside to see the doctor. It was just a follow-up, so nothing to worry about, and I was back home a little before 11:30. I saw almost no traffic headed back in the opposite direction.

Then I caught a train into Manhattan. I sort of had to: today’s the day we moved into the new office. (I’d actually tried, and failed, to reschedule my doctor’s appointment when I learned it overlapped with move-in.)

I’ll say this about the new place: it’s nice. It looks very professional, and I think it’s the sort of office we’d be pleased to have authors visit. I’m not sold on everything about it, including the open plan layout and my position in it, and some things are going to be a big adjustment. But it is a nice office.

I think tomorrow will be better gauge of how much it messes with my commute. I walked it both ways today, and in the evening it took me maybe twenty-five minutes from our floor to Penn Station. I may give the subway a go tomorrow and see if that helps me any. I don’t mind the extra ten minutes of walking so much — I have podcasts — but I have only so many trains to choose from in both the morning and evening.

Longer term, I’m still planning on moving. My sister and my brother-in-law even bought me a copy of Home Buying for Dummies as a birthday present, so I guess this means I really need to do it. The idea is to find a realtor, find some areas I like — I’m thinking Queens, maybe Forrest Hills — and go from there.

Although, wherever I move, I may have to put up cubicle walls in it, just so I can have them again.

Movin’ out

It was almost bittersweet today, leaving the office, leaving this office for the last time, knowing that I won’t be coming back to the building where I’ve worked for six and a half years. I won’t miss the building, exactly, except maybe in that weird way you miss any place that you used to be and no longer are, the way nostalgia creeps in even when you’re not feeling particularly nostalgic. The company and my job aren’t changing, even if our office layout is, come Monday, so it’s more strange than anything else. It’s just odd: I won’t miss the place, but I’ll miss the place.

Though I am almost disappointed they didn’t send us off with another random fire alarm. That would have been fitting.

As it was, the day was spent answering a couple of e-mail and then heading home at noon. We’ll see the new place for the first time on Monday.

Zero hour approaches

What can you say about a Thursday, this one in particular? Not a whole lot, as it happens. It was colder and rainier that the rest of the week has been, but largely indistinguishable in most other respects. We’re getting close to the final hour at the office, today being our last full day there, and everything I’m taking with me to my new work station is in a crate on its way over there now. (Possibly, it’s all already there.) Tomorrow is a half day, mostly for people who have yet to finish packing, and after that we’ll never see the old place again.

I’m not really going to miss it. I’ve worked in this building, now, for just shy of seven years, and we could do with a change. I’m not thrilled with the idea of an open plan layout, or by what it does to my commute, but I won’t miss the constant fire alarms or the tile falling off the bathroom wall. (The latter is a recent occurrence, as the office has gone full House of Usher on us, falling apart as we leave; the former, however, has been constant, almost every day, for at least the last three or four years. These are some seriously well-tested fire alarms.) It will be an adjustment, some of which I’m resigned to because — well, because I have to be — but most of which I’m genuinely looking forward to. If only because we’ve been talking about moving for months and now we’re finally, on Monday, doing it.

Wednesday? Wednesday.

There’s not a whole lot to say about today. We’re inching ever closer to the office move, with just about everything except my computer now in crates and ready to go. We’ll have a half day on Friday, since they’ve said they’re shutting the server down around noon. But that’s good, since the coffeemakers are being moved tomorrow night, and there’s snow in the weather forecast. And who wants to spend a long cold day surrounded by people who aren’t getting their regular dose of caffeine?