Unexpected Things

First, as Dogwood rightly points out, no one does expect the Spanish Inquisition.

Or, having had the late afternoon that I did, remembers it...

Thus, unexpected thing the first is that Mrs. History Buff her-own-self forgot about the Inquisition special. I'll have to tape it when it repeats next week in the early AM.

Unexpected thing the 2nd: Moving out of my office for a bit. Whilst in another colleague's office, our discussion was interrupted by another colleague informing me that there was Niagara Falls in my office. Sure enough, there was water coming through and between the ceiling tiles and bouncing up onto desk papers, books (expensive medical references, of course, not the training manuals), pictures, diplomas, etc.

We began grabbing things and trying to disentangle computer cabling. It didn't seem that bad until the first ceiling tile burst from the weight of a whole lot of water. By the time that a third of the ceiling was gone, we'd gotten most of what was valuable out of the room. At the same time, another crowd was grabbing computers, 800 MHz radios, papers, etc. from my boss's half of the office suite (he'd left for a meeting across town) where water was coming in over the corner of the room.

In an interesting turn of events, today was SC State Employees Appreciation Day. I skipped the Appreciation weenie roast & dessert fest down the street, to work on other projects. I felt appreciated as the upper echelons of the agency adminisphere not only showed up while the water was pouring in overhead, but actively moved books, boxes, computers, etc. They were quite concerned that I was OK (I'd gotten really wet when one tile burst) and were very helpful. Nice when it goes beyond just verbal expressions of appreciation, as it did here.

One other interesting tidbit: Employees had been encouraged to wear blue jeans for our Appreciation Day. I'm not sure why wearing blue jeans makes people feel appreciated, but I DO know that people wearing jeans are much more likely to crawl under desks, climb on chairs to grab boxes, etc. Worked out well for us. (I haven't fit in my jeans for quite a few pounds, so wore a denim dress. I still crawled under the desk--little stops me from responding in an emergency.)

When I left at nearly 7 PM, building services and the roofing contractor (yes, on a day with only a light rain, my office was soaked just under the very area where the roof was being worked on by subcontractors -- sound like anything else that happened this week last year, folks?) had tarped files and shelves that couldn't be moved and were securing all our things that had been dragged out into the halls.

Interesting, if not potentially mortifying item from this afternoon: Ladies, you know those person items you keep in the cubbie right above your desk for emergencies? Sometimes, if someone is rapidly removing the contents of your office, various little emergency items may spill out and roll down the hall in full view of colleagues, contractors, etc. You just pick them up and find a new emergency location...

Finally, unexpected thing the 3rd: Izzy and I went to see Glenn Kaiser last night at a local coffee shop. We were standing outside waiting for the shop to open after the sound check, when I heard my name called -- a couple who were in my high school youth group were there with their 12 year old daughter. I hadn't seen these folks since the Christmas after I first went off to college (let's just say Carter administration...)

We had a great time catching up and he was genuinely interested in hearing about how we came to swim the Tiber. In the let's-all-feel-old department, the husband was a grade behind me in school -- they have a 23 year old and a nineteen year old. The wife's younger sister, I think my age, has a 26 year old. We have an almost 11 year old cat. Hardly compares...

Three unexpected things in 24 hours -- that's enough for now. I'm planning to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day tomorrow by contributing to the southern economy -- getting an oil change and maybe looking at getting some new jeans to wear on Friday (when we're once again asked to wear them so we'll feel appreciated.)