Yesterday, I ended up leaving work early... at about 2:30pm. I tried to stick it out, but it was either leave early or go to jail for assault. I've mentioned one of my pod-mates before, more than once... how he can be so annoying. At the same time, he is a helluva worker, super-duper smart on the computer. He's the go-to guy for system queries. So, though I admire him a great deal for his work ethic and skills, I was ready to give him a good smack yesterday.
He had some phone conversations a few times in the morning that sounded quite intense. (You cannot have any secret conversations in pod dwelling; it is impossible.) As the first phone conversation progressed, so did his agitation. He will frequently play with pens or other items that make noise. Over and over and over and over and over. The phone conversation really got him going. All morning it was click, click, click with a pen, or flap-smack, flap-smack, flap-smack with papers, or ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump with a water bottle... ALL MORNING. At one point, I don’t know how the person he was talking with on the phone could hear him because he was smacking papers repeatedly & so loudly.
I hadn't plan to leave for lunch, but I did just to get away from him. I've been working on something difficult, and he was making it impossible for me to concentrate.
Usually, I can ignore his regular continuous noise-making, but it was worse yesterday morning... I'm sure it must have been his phone conversations that upset him. He doesn't have an overly loud voice, but yesterday it was loud. It also didn’t help that he and I were the only ones in our pod not off on a vacation day.
I got back to the office with my lunch and ate it at my desk. I didn’t notice if he was there or not… but the phone calls and the noise-making started up again shortly afterwards. I tried and tried… so instead of losing it and screaming at him, I just packed up all my work and left.
My first stop was at a nearby money machine in a shopping plaza on the way home. There was a yellow and black jeep already at the machine, with a cute, young chicky driving it. She took quite a while. After she finally left, I drove up. The machine was beeping at me… beep, beep, beep (reminded me of someone….). The panel was asking, “Do you need more time?” Did I mention the girl was blonde? Anyway, after pressing the “no” button, out shot her card. I looked ahead and saw her turning the corner through the shopping plaza. With a sigh, I put the old LeSabre into drive and hurried after her. I blew my horn, but I don’t think I got her attention. I did get some dirty looks from shoppers who clearly felt I was driving too fast in front of K-Mart (I was, but not crazily so). Blowing my horn repeatedly, I finally caught up with her, got her attention and waved her card out my window at her. She pulled over and I pulled up next to her, putting my passenger window down. I held her card out and said, “you forgot something.”
In truth, that was kind of fun. She was happy & said thank you nicely, and it improved my mood a great deal.
Leaving the office worked out for me, too, because I got a helluva lot of work done at home later in the afternoon and early evening. Kev was sleeping because he had to go into work last night; midnights shift started.
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