We moved office at the end of May and it was a total CF:
- No one thought to get emergency no parking permits from the city so to get space for the trucks to unload three of us had to go downtown with our cars and circle the block until spaces opened up (Uh, gas is over $4.10/gallon here and you’re only going to pay me for “mileage” at 48.5 cents/mile?);
- the moving company only sent half the crew and trucks they should have so the rest of our move had to get pushed until Saturday and on Saturday one of the driver’s got pulled over, with an empty truck thankfully, and had the truck impounded because he had no registration so the move that should have taken four hours took 10;
- we didn’t get keys to the new office until we’d been there a week and we still don’t have after hours access.
The good news is that the new office is fabulous: my space gets morning sunlight and I have windows that open which have been a fantastic boon during the mid-70s, low humidity weather we’ve been having for the past week.
The new office is Downtown, in fact we’re right in the heart of DC. I walk out of my building, cross the park and cross one more street and I have the opportunity to moon the White House if I so choose. Not that I’d choose to in this climate; I hear the Nutraloaf at DC Jail isn’t especially appealing. Downtown is interesting, full of people and things to see and places to eat and bookstores to walk to, all things I’ve been deprived of the past couple of years while I’ve been working Uptown near the Metro Stop That Time Forgot (but hey, we had a grocery store where we could go and get…groceries).
As a consequence of the move, I’ve had to develop a new routine; going to a new subway stop for work will do that to you, but going to a new place has gotten me to thinking about habits and how we form them and why we do some of the things we do. Such as:
Why do we wash our hands in hot water? Experimentation since this thought randomly occurred has proven to me that washing dishes in hot or warm water makes sense; the higher temperature water helps to loosen food particles that may be stuck to dishes. Now, this same experimentation has also proven that scrubbing harder using cold water will loosen food particles so it makes sense: in dishwashing, hot or warm water is a labor saving device. But the same doesn’t hold true for washing your hands.
In cold climes, it’s true, warm water just feels better in the winter. But with anti-bacterial everything, including hand sanitizer that doesn’t even require water (hint: most of them are something like 60% alcohol), other than the comfort factor during the winter, what’s the point of using hot or warm water to wash your hands? If you’ve got cheese or something else stuck to them you’ve probably got bigger issues than water temperature but how many things do we do out of habit without thinking about them?
I’m not saying all habits are bad, more that in order to be present in your life isn’t why you’re doing something just as important as the effect you get from doing it?
The other thing I’ve been thinking about is fashion. With more people to look at as I trek to and from the office there are a lot more fashion choices to consider, both good and bad, and I’ve discovered two things:
1) sartorially it’s 1983: I saw a guy the other day in a lime-green Izod polo shirt, collar turned up ‘natch, salmon-pink pleated-front khaki shorts, and boat shoes. He looked like he’d memorized The Preppy Handbook. Given that not one single good thing ever came out of 1983, this is not a good sign considering that…
2) hip-huggers have invaded “business dress” for women: yes, once confined to casual wear women are now squeezing themselves into these god-awful pieces of clothing and going to work. Given that anyone with actual hips looks like a sea cow in a pair of these, why would you choose to wear them all day at your job? Perhaps because the fashion industry conspires against any woman who wants to eat more than a valium and a Diet Coke every day? But having looked at a lot of asses in the past two weeks, again on the trek to and from the office, I think the easiest way to kill this fashion trend that never should have been reborn is to make every woman look at her ass in a pair of these. The business casual version of these pants, typically with a wide waistband about 2 inches above faux pockets with flaps, make even a woman with buttocks best suited for this style look like she’s wearing an adult diaper. And I know incontinence is really what I’d like to advertise in a professional or social scenario.
Yes, I know this is all pretty random, but I’m avoiding writing my essay on Presidential politics. Mostly it’s because I still can’t approach the issue with any measure of calm. The rest, well, is it possible to go to the polls in November and vote “present?” After all, if it’s good enough for the Democratic presumptive nominee it should be good enough for the average voter.