I Used to be the Smart One, Sharp as a Tack

It’s a lazy Sunday, so I thought I’d regale you with something silly. Apparently the one office I didn’t temp at won the second place video award for You Tube–The Office Promo contest! It’s quite a sight. Check it out at NBC.

Here is a look back at some of the highlights of temping:

1. I usually worked within a few miles of home, so not having the crazy 17-mile drive was a big plus!
2. I felt a lot less guilty about goofing off at work.  On the other hand, I didn’t always have access to Internet or freedom to see the sites I like.  Life’s always about trade offs!
3. I was usually the smartest person in the room, or at least the most charming.  Working at a university, I am almost never the smartest…but sometimes I think I’m the cutest!
4. My bosses ran the gamut of crazy to kind, but sometimes I’d meet a gem and they’d buy me giant Vanilla Lattes (the quickest way to my heart) or laugh at my jokes.
5. I dressed up for work!  I used to wear all my cute clothes.  Now I work at a place populated with students in pajamas or few clothes at all (some are on the way to the laundry room, others are walking around in tiny bike shorts…) so I tend to dress down, too.
6. My life was Dave-free.  I didn’t come home everyday with some story about my coworker that I share an office with.  I’m even sick of this dude’s name.
7. I could write at work because the work I was doing was so simple a trained chimp could do it—maybe even a trained chump.  I still do write at work, but usually it’s for this lovely little diary.  I used to fill up notebooks with stories, and I really miss that.
8. I miss being close to delicious eateries!  I never get to eat at my favorite sushi place, except on days when I really don’t care about work and decide to face the consequences of taking an almost two hour lunch.  I miss pastries and local coffee shops.  I’m a Starbucks girl now because of proximity, not by choice.
9. Sight seeing on my lunch hour is pretty hard since my office is kind of remote.  I used to love having lunch at the Rose Garden.  I’d go up and down the rows smelling Barbra Streisand, Cinderella, and Voodoo.  The only thing I get to smell now is the pungent aroma of skunk and fresh cut grass.
10. My wit used to be so sharp.  It had to be, I used it like a protective coat of armor.  It kept me from taking life too seriously, and helped me keep my chin up.  I’m becoming comfortably numb, and that scares me!  Did I tell you that I have two Cathy notepads on my desk that I swiped from the supply closet?  The fact that I can relate makes me a little more than depressed!

That’s enough reminiscing for now. I’m still not quite where I want to be, but I think I’ve got some learning to do yet before I’m be ready to move on to bigger and better.