Category Archives: Work

Jeepers

So today was my department’s turn at our Habitat for Humanity house. It turns out that I am

a) not good at hanging drywall
b) not good at working in 90 degree heat
c) a big, BIG wuss

I believe in the cause, but I think they need a lot of support and a LOT LOT LOT more money. I have a raging headache, I itch all over, and I feel really embarrassed because my coworker SENT ME HOME because my face was PURPLE. Purple. Honestly.

My face is back to my-face-colored, but my head is screaming “Why did you try to be a tough person?” and the jagged ball of hurt above my left eye makes me want to vomit or cry, but I’m holding back because, gee, that would make the throbbing and the pain that much worse.

So, the following are not cures for a dehydration migraine:

a) blogging
b) Mandy Moore movies
c) searching vainly for the March issue of SELF so that I can contemplate starting the SELF challenge to lose weight and feel great about myself (only to eat a slimy delicious cheesesteak and loaded fries as soon as I get the plan written out)
d) chicken noodle soup and a grilled cheese sandwich (though they were delicious)

I wish I had taken my camera with me to the Habitat build so that I could show you how hard everyone worked, and how crappy the conditions are, and how very very red and purple my face got. Ah well.

Hurt at Work

It doesn’t look like much, but I got hurt at work today, and I have boo-boos. BOO-BOOS! On my face!

We have cubes at my office – they have these removable frosted clear plastic file trays that stick out of the wall. I was in the “shared laptop” cubicle trying to scan something and the scanner didn’t seem to be on. I stood up, leaned over it, and cleanly and efficiently jammed my eye socket unto the corner of the file tray.

OUCH!

Tears started–getting hit that close the eye causes the defensive tears to start. I then realized that I was about a biscuit away from sobbing like a baby, so I promptly picked up my stuff and left.

This is what it looks like. It doesn’t look like it hurts, but it does. I can’t even move my right eyebrow, so Dwight is without the benefit of my comical yet attractive facial expressions.

Here it is.

As you can see, my eyes are also swollen from the boo-hoo baby crying I did on the way home.

I feel wounded and silly, and I skipped school because I was still collapsing into tears every seventh breath or so.

I managed to write this blog without crying, so that’s a bonus. Poor me. Oh poor me.

Thanks for coming to my pity party.

First of all, it was stupid of me to plant my face into a pointy file tray. I’ll admit that. If the pointy file tray wasn’t looming…dangerously…waiting to jab itself into someone’s eye socket I would probably have just laughed it off–if all of my body weight hadn’t been behind the head that houses the eye socket that jammed into the pointy corner of the file tray and I hadn’t cried out–actually cried out in pain. It would have been funny.

It would have been also funnier if I hadn’t had to flee my place of business because I knew that the only way I could control the sobs would be by choking them back, thus making a two-year-old-sounding hiccupy crying noise, and if I could manage that I’d be lucky because every atom of my being wanted to cradle the uninjured half of my face in my soft, Target sweater-covered arms and p0ur every ounce of frustration, stress, and pain into wracking, cleansing, full-bodied sobs that would shake the already unsteady structure of my cube.

My poor Mom–I called her from the parking lot, tredging unsteadily with my school bag, computer, and gym bag in tow, trying not to cry visibly because all of the VP – level executives have offices with windows and I could just see some Veep saying, “Hey Liz, saw you sobbing in the parking lot the other day, I thought you’d gotten fired” or “Hey Liz, saw you crying in the parking lot. I told you shouldn’t wear heels that high.” I finally got to my car, and it was a blubberfest from Innsbrook to almost home.

Sheesh. I’m tired.

Ode to a Rubber Band Ball

Ode to my Rubber Band Ball

I started you with a single band and paper

And thought my interest would wane and taper

But now you are so round and bouncy

I couldn’t love you another ounce. See…

…soon your size and magnitude

Will overwhelm my little cube

People from all around will travel

And from the stress you will unravel

Once the bands I did abhor

And now I only wish for more

To grow your power and your glory

To tell a cautionary rubber band ball story

And on that fateful day when you spring apart

I’ll pick up the pieces of my stretched-out heart

Crumple a used-up sticky note, true

And start to make another you