reading: dancing naked in the mind field kary mullis
listening: mirrorball sarah mclachlan
surfing: brand x

1999 july 28

the demise of grocery boy

well, that didn't last long.

grocery boy had been with us less than a month when he took a walk. i mean literally, took a walk. yesterday, about 1130, he stood up and stretched and sort of looked about the room with a confused expression on his face. "going to lunch?" i queried.

"uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeah. yeah, i'm going to lunch."

"okay, see you later," i chirped perkily, since i was trying to be a nice girl and all seeing as he was still rather new. only i didn't see him later, did i? no, i didn't, because he never ever came back. left his computer on, his coffee cup on the desk, a box with two granola bars in one drawer and his office key and access card in the other.

about 3pm, i looked at c, the temporary officemate, and she looked at me and almost simultaneously we asked, "you think he bailed?"

oh yes, he bailed, and he didn't even have the decency to do it to our faces. left us wondering all day and all night. well, most of the night for those who go to bed later than i, but all night for me. i woke this morning to find a little note from my boss telling me he had in fact received a short little letter from grocery boy.

seems grocery boy is used to being grocery boy, roaming the floor, moving around, chitchatting with all the people in search of the perfect peach. he just couldn't take sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day. whoa!! good use of those three years of night school you put yourself through, gb. you might have considered all that sitting before you took those programming classes.

so now it is back to me, and me alone, in my little department. there used to be six people doing my job. admittedly we were in a growth mode then but we are gearing up toward another now and there is still just me, the lone claire, working her poor fingers to the bone, grinding her nose down to a point on the old grindstone, straining her shoulders with the weight of the department.

poor, poor claire.

working harder than one small, or not so small person, should, claire

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