So, since the beginning of the year, with the reorganization ongoing, we have always been told that once it took effect, we would not be moving offices right away. We have possession of all of the Colgate Building now, and both empty spaces, both on the first and second floors, need to be redone into Cubicle-lands. This was coming "down the road" and we would be given warning closer to the time.

Which is why, when the e-mail arrived Monday morning, my jaw dropped. We were told we had to pack up our cubicles/offices for moving on Thursday! Holy cats!

Which explains why I got absolutely nothing done at work this week except for a few e-mails, phone calls, and one last modification that my old team lead asked me to do. I couldn't even try to do the wage determination I needed to muddle my way through because the Department of Labor site had some type of error.

They were providing crates for files and other things, but I collected my personal stuff in photocopier boxes as well, because I figured the cubicles would be smaller than what I had and some of the stuff, like my flower garlands, would just have to come home. But we hadn't even seen the office yet, so Tamera and I walked over there on Tuesday. Just about what I suspected, too, about the size of the cubie I had when we were back in Buckhead on the fourth floor. Only one overhead bin, most of which I would have to use for my pantry of oatmeal and cup-o'soup, and my meds. Only one rolling cabinet. Four squarish cubicles on one side of the aisle, three longer ones on the other, and then another aisle just the same. Our filing cabinets were set in front. All pretty ugly, but we do have a window at the back. We are on the first floor, next to the break room and don't need a badge to go to the bathroom. In a way, Tamera and I are both lucky, as we are only losing a small bit of space. Some folks came from offices.

One of the things I found I couldn't take along were all my files. Each person now has only one five-drawer lateral file; I had two file cabinets, a four-drawer and a five-drawer lateral, full. So I made arrangements to send the 2008 and 2009 orders to the file room, thanks to the nice file room guy who said he would take them for me. I made up a makeshift list for him since I didn't have time to record them separately, but he said that was okay.

I made a really sobering discovery in the corner of a bottom drawer. There was a stack of purchase orders not in file folders, since before 2008 we were not required to put purchase orders in individual file folders; they used to go in accordion folders. So I had to put them all in folders, and it nearly had me in tears because it was every single purchase order I had done after my mother had died. I must have put them back there and completely blotted them from memory, or else they would have gone to the file room back in 2005 like the rest of the files.

Thursday morning it was down to the wire. I cleaned out the top two drawers of the rolling file cabinet, the top of my desk, etc. and had everything labeled for the movers. The IT guys showed up and bagged my computer and peripherals at eight, so I was unable to do anymore work after that. The movers showed up about ten. Between times I read the first Phryne Fisher book and said good-bye to everyone around me—going to miss Gary squawking and Cherie's funky ringtones and being able to ask Lisa technical questions.

After the movers came there was nothing to keep me in the cubicle any longer. I went downstairs to talk to Nancy for a few minutes—I told her I felt like we were being exiled!—and then drove Twilight over to the new building, which is across the street. I found one last parking space in the row out front, swung the car smoothly in the space—and my right front tire hit the curb and went up and down with a thump.

!@#$%^&*^!$%#^!!!

When I got out to check the tire deflated before my eyes. [eyes roll] So in the midst of moving around my own boxes, I had to call AAA and then my mechanic to get a new tire ordered. The AAA guy was, as my mom would have said, a "hot sketch." He presented me with my complimentary bottle of water and then pulled it back, asking, "Are you old enough to drink that?" and conversation proceeded from there. He had the limited use spare on in a trice, and by the time I went back inside Mike had a new tire waiting for me.

In short order the movers arrived and everyone else who would be working in Cubicle-land. We arranged our stuff and, after the IT guys showed up, our computers as well. Set up my overhead, put my coat hook up, left the empty photocopy boxes there as a table to hold my lunch bag and carry bag since I couldn't bring a second rolling set of drawers with me. (We're told we can order some. We'll see.) We finally had a computer connection back, but, without a printer and a scanner, there wasn't much that could be done. I did make a very necessary phone call.

I couldn't find two things: my two calendar pictures of Boston that were the last things I'd taken down (I remember where they are now; under the blotter calendar) and my big stapler, brown file folders, and glass cleaner. I had asked my team lead if I could leave an hour early since I would have to drive home with that ridiculous limited-use spare and I didn't want to do that in traffic. (I was very grateful for that courtesy, since traffic was already getting bad.) I had to go back upstairs and check out something, and sure enough I found the big stapler, brown file folders, and glass cleaner in the top drawer of the smaller file cabinet. I'd just forgotten to pack it up.

By the time I got home I was almost sleepwalking. The person arranging the move had helped me load my three-years worth of files into the boxes and said he'd come help me unpack if I wanted, but I felt like a wimp even asking for help the first time and just reloaded the filing cabinet myself. This was a mistake; even after three ibuprofin I was limping around all night.

James forgot to take something out of the freezer for dinner, so we both had frozen dinners. He'd found a Michelina's pepper steak and rice that he hoped was like my old favorite Banquet dinner that I used to eat on laundry nights when I was back in the "Cubbyhole" [my studio apartment] in the late 1980s. I think it had six or seven small cubes of "steak" in it and everything else was bits of celery, a few peppers, tomato sauce and lots of rice. Disappointing. I fell asleep on the couch after I ate until Jeopardy. Big Bang Theory was funny, though.

I've never been so glad to see bedtime...

Labels: food, television, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:42:00 PM

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