Back To Work, Ya Slobs!

I went back to work today. I should perhaps explain - the company I contract with ran out of money to pay me with (makes me sound just dreadfully overpaid, doesn't it?) so they asked me to sit out four to six weeks until they got fresh funding scraped up. So I sat out six weeks, and finally went back to work today.

The good news is that I'm funded for eighteen months to two years, at least, and in the next fiscal year the department budget is going to expand significantly, so who knows what'll happen in the long run.

The bad news is that nothing got done while I was gone. Criminy! I don't think they even vacuumed out my cubicle or dusted the tops of the flipper cabinets. I left a tin of Altoids spearmint candies on my computer when I left, and it was still there when I came in today (and when I moved it, it left a clear spot in the dust, proof that nobody had so much as breathed on it in six weeks). My badge worked in the door, and other than forgetting my computer password and having to call IT, my computer is exactly as I left it.

Why is that bad? I was sort of hoping I'd get a fancy new cubicle with if not a wet bar then at least an iced tea machine and a masseuse (for my back, you know, strictly for my back and not for anything else). But no, it's the same old cubicle with the strange desktop that's an odd color that could be dark reddish brown or could be slightly confused burgundy, depending on the lighting, and the same collection of meaningless Post-it Note scrawls stuck to the side of my computer (such as an exhortation to call "Meester Beeg", but I have no idea who "Meester Beeg" is - I ended up throwing that one away because it was creepy).

But I did get a new chair. My old chair was evil, pure and simple, and I think much of the reason my back caused me such difficulties for the last few months at work was that dreadful chair. I complained about it and stole a better chair from across the aisle, but they finally got me a new chair while I was out (either that or the former owner of the chair decided it just wasn't worth fighting a custody battle).

It's good to be back at work. Nothing's changed, nothing has been accomplished and I'm slotting back in right where I left off six weeks ago, only I feel a lot better physically. I didn't take a single pain pill today and I actually felt pretty good all day until I got home and tried sticking tiny bits of tape to a model airplane, but I can hardly blame work for that discomfort, can I?

Sure I can! This is America, I can blame whoever I want!