I love meeting people without middle names. It's like they're from another planet.

This entry is dedicated to one of those "that guys" every large office has.

This is dedicated to the "what exactly do you do here?" guy.

He has an office, or at least a cubicle, and he always looks busy. You just have no idea what he's so busy doing. There's no apparent input or output.

He's never the guy you ask a question of. No one ever says "I don't know, check with Hank" or "That's really Hank's area of expertise, he'll know what to do". No, you never need to talk to that guy. He's usually quiet and keeps to himself and doesn't really talk much, thus eliminating any possibility you will ever know what his function is. He's listed under a generic or totally vague title such as "Assitant Administrator". There are no real clues as to what his function is.

My "that guy" at LGSC is Patrick.

His desk is on my floor, in a work area smaller than that of the guy listed as "Facilities Supervisor" who refills the office supplies. He's hardly ever at his desk, suggesting he is somewhere doing something important.

The only clues I have to his function are: I once saw him photocopying a whole bunch of packets for distribution. However, since I did not receive one of these packets, I have no idea what their content was. Second, he occasionally sends out faxes...yet they're always addressed to the same person.

Our usual interaction consists of passing each other in the hall where we exchange customary awkward greetings and move on with our lives, or (and this is my favorite) in the kitchen.

For some reason, in the afternoons if I happen to have found myself chained to the copier, which is located in the kitchen, I will encounter his water drinking ritual.

After lunch, he goes to the bathroom, then comes into the kitchen and turns on the purified water faucet, let's it run for a few seconds, and proceeds to fill a styrofoam cup of water and drink it while standing at the sink. He then repeats this system at least once, sometimes twice. He then tosses out the cup and returns to his desk to continue doing whatever it is he does. One would think...hey Patrick, you know, you can take those back to your desk and drink them at your leisure. There's no need to chug them like you've just escaped the Sahara. There will be more later.

I also never see him come into work or leave. Considering I sit right by the elevators and the only stairwell you can get to other floors through, I'd notice. He either lives under his tiny desk or he's so busy with all his "work" he needs to work overtime.

Oh Patrick and your weird glasses and super awkward existence. What would the 4th floor be without you?

No really I want to know, what would be the difference?

I don't want to know what he does. It would kill all my fun. I just pretend he's a secret agent.

My entires are usually dedicated to things to annoy me so I'll talk about good things now:

Oscar is really the cutest cat ever and he occupies a great deal of my energy. In the middle oftypging that sentence i had to untangle the squeaky mouse that hangs over my bedroom door from my fan to prevent him from attempting to do it himself. HE'S SO CUTE!!!

Work is not great but at least I have a job and a steady income, even if its not fantastic. I do have some people I enjoy working with, but they work on different floors. Come to think of it, that's probably why I like them there is a floor buffer between us. My bosses (the two attorneys who I actually work for) are really nice even if they don't give me a lot to do. And I've started a tentative search for a new job.

My friends are sweet. I had a dream that one of them was dating K-Fed and it didn't occur to me that this was odd until I thought about it as I was getting out of the shower, haha.

I've been a member of agym for MONTHS and I never go, but I just found out I can go to any BAC and use it and its all good. So I went tonight and worked out and feel at least moderately better about myself.

A friend is getting married this weekend and it should be fun. I gotta go look at a wedding gift now, bye!

On the one hand its great to have a former professor whose opinion you trust to help you out with the planning the future career thing.

On the other hand, its not so great when it comes to her challenging you to try harder and go for that big name school you'll need on your resume when all is said and done and you're looking for work. Thereby putting on a great deal of pressure. I know she knows my limitations and won't send me off into the world blindly with no clue as to what to expect.

Nevermind the whole Ph.D./ dissertation thing, I don't even know if I'm smart enough to get into any program let alone a highly selective top school. Oy. Nevermind the cost!

Grad school is hard...and I haven't even gotten into it yet.

It's so bad how much I can't stand this woman I work with. Like I've never disliked someone that I work with thus much. Normally I can find some way to get around it but she's weird, homophobic and don't get me started on her weird personal life she enjoys sharing with us. She thinks the worst of everyone and always has a nasty thing to say. I don't know that I've ever heard her say something nice about anyone or anything. It's always mean spirited.

The other day I heard another woman i work with talking about how she overheard someone make a comment to their son about some guy, basically implying that their son was gay. And she was like "I don't know, I mean it might have been true!" and my response was "who cares?" It just blows my mind that there are people in this world who really believe that there are like 7 gay people in the world and they all live somewhere else.

I just can't handle the closed minded ignorance that comprises so much of our population.

Basically i need to quit my job and find one that pays the same but isn't working with 40 year old angry divorced women with 5 kids who have never left Buffalo and never want to.* I just realized every secretary I work with grew up in Buffalo and their parents live here too. That fact had never crossed my mind before.

Only 11 months til Grad School.

• DISCLAIMER: I have nothing against Buffalo, it's my home, but we all know those people who don't leave Buffalo and not because they love it here, but because they don't realize that there is a world outside Buffalo that they can actually go to that isn't Disney World.

Running sucks.

So my d-bag sister has "inspired" me to take up running. No for real though, she didn't try to get me to do it all it was legitimately all my idea

I officially started "training" for a 5k yesterday, I actually had to run today and it freakin BLOWS. I was so sweaty and tired and I didn't even run a mile. (I'm kinda fat and I'm in a shape, but not exactly the optimal desired shape if you hadn't noticed yet)

Spending all day in heels sitting at a desk and then running like immediately after work is probably not the best tactic, but whatev. I have like a month until the 5k, in which I'm sure my time will be awful, but at least I can say I tried it. I might grow to like it...eventually.

It took (e:mk) like 2 years to actually enjoy running not just that "I feel good about myself after I suffer through it" enjoy it, but like actually look forward to it. I hope to get there eventually.

House and Law & Order SVU premiere tonight! woohoo!!!

Ok so in my office building almost every door has a CyberLock on it which means you have to punch a 4 digit number in order for the door to unlock. Every door in the building has the same code. Let me repeat that for necessasry emphasis: EVERY DOOR IN THE BUILDING HAS THE SAME 4 DIGIT CODE and everyone uses it every single day.

However, in spite of the fact that this is the case, I am sill compelled to buzz people in. I have 2 buttons under my desk, 1 for each door. Sometimes I wish they could shoot lasers or could turn off all the lights in the building...just to keep things interesting.

Anytoot, its expected that I buzz in the attorneys at least, but I usually buzz in the couriers and the facilities people who spend their entire day going floor to floor punching in those 4 numbers. Who I don't like to buzz in are other secretaries who should know better than to assume that I'll just stop what I'm doing to let them in. Especially the women on the 3rd floor, in which, because of remodeling, they don't have people who sit in the front where they must buzz people in. If they did, they would know how annoying it is. One woman literally walks to the door, puts her hand on the handle and stares at me until I open it. I mean, really? It takes possibly 5 seconds if you're very slow to punch i n those numbers. So this morning, I rebelled, with my dictation headphones in I just kept doing what I was doing and ignored her as she stared at me for a good 30 seconds waiting for me to let her in. Someone else opened the door for her.

Bite me, punch in the damn numbers yourself. Nevermind the fact that i don't like the people who work on the 3rd floor anyway. Well, let's see what happens the next time she tries to come to this floor.

I also happen to work on one of the 2 busiest floors, meaning lots of people come up here every day, and I sit on the side of the floor most people walk to, because HR and the accounting department are over here. It's been 2 months, I'm a little tired of it.

So yeah, I know, life's so hard, hahaha.

I need to get back on track with weight watchers. I hopped on the scale yesterday and it was not a pretty sight. I have no more excuses, this summer was hectic: moving 2x, college ending, friends moving away, new job, vacation, it made it hard to stick with it. But this is it. I'm back on track. I did well yesterday and today its so far so good.

Woohooo.

This weekend (e:mk), her whatever he is, boyfriend I guess and I went to Rochester for the Rochester half-marathon/marathon. (e:mk) ran the 1/2, Cory and I cheered from the finish line. (e:mk)'s friend Nicole ran the full marathon and declared it to be the worst thing she's ever done, she looked like she wanted to crawl into bed and never get up again.

As I frequently say, I only run when chased by a knife wielding maniac. which is probably why I'm so svelte now.

Although watching these runners aaaaalmost makes me want to do it. But not really. But maybe I will. But probably not. I do hate running. That might just be because I'm so out of shape. Maybe I'd like it more if I wasn't in such bad shape.

Anywho, it was fun all around, especially the part where a golden retriever slept on me for a morning, apparently the backs of my legs make a great dog bed.

Work is still boring. Now there's a temp who is working in the cubicle next to mine, and what sucks is that she doesn't actually work for the firm like as in a full time employee so basically as long as she does the project she's been hired to do, she can do whatever she wants. She chats on her phone A LOT. For example, right now. She just said something about who ever she's talking to and their sister are just looking for love and someone spit on a manager of some kind.

She also commits a fashion crime I detest. Obviously colored contacts. I overheard her say on the phone that she is chinese and black, and she somehow has blue eyes? Unless she is secretly thath girl from Memoirs of a Geisha, I think not. They're not even kind of convincing. She looks a little zombie-esque wearing them. Although the fact that she's doing this project means the secretaries here don't have to, so welcome to Lipsitz Green, wear whatever the heck you want!

I'm not sure what I want to go to grad school for, i'm tossing around a few ideas, but I think just to be on the safe side, since some programs require it and some don't, I'm going to take the GRE. anyone taken it before that can give me some advice on it? Thanks!!

What does it say about the world when my new boss comes over to my desk in the morning just to say hello and ask what's new...and thats it. It's not a pre-cursor to him giving me work or just because we're in the elevator at the same time, he passes my desk on his way from getting coffee and stops by to say hello. Granted, he's a pretty young attorney- and probably a newly wed (his wife calls the office...for all the attorneys for whom I answer the phone, I've never spoken to another's spouse)

It's sad because we shouldn't expect the people we work for to only talk to us when absolutely necessary. I know this won't last long and in a few weeks he'll be too busy to do that. So it's nice while it lasts.

After the opening sucking so bad, I really hope that this surprise last act is Britney puling out all the stops and kicking ass.