Weekend Moves

This weekend we moved our offices to another building. First and foremost I would like to tip my hat to the planning committee for scheduling the move during a weekend where Atlanta had to deal with both the Super Bowl and ice storms. Planning such as this always adds flavor and character to any undertaking. Please understand that if the old office, the new office and the Georgia Dome were all points on a straight line then the old office is Point A and the new office is Point C. Point B would be the Dome where the Super Bowl was played and you can’t get from Point A to Point C without going through Point B. I would be understating my case if I were to say that the logistics of the move were difficult.

We have moved, however; from a tiny cramped space which the company had outgrown 7 employees before they hired me into a huge space which we only just begin to fill up. I no longer share the break room/kitchen area with 4 other people, the coffeepot and the water cooler. I have my very own space – a real office with a door, containing a desk that isn’t a table being used as a desk. I even have a file cabinet! Wooo-Bay-bee!

Saturday was a total loss as far as the move went. The streets were slick with ice. The salt trucks were making rounds but they couldn’t keep up with the fools who were out there driving as if it were the Indy 500, the streets were dry and they had a green flag. Sunday I managed to thread my way through semi-thawed streets and around the football fan-atics (who were piling into the stadium as early as 11 am for a 6 PM game). I had very little to unpack. I have not been here long enough to accumulate stuff and since I had no storage space, it was very easy to avoid accumulating things. But I did have some pilfering to do.

The previous tenants had left whatever pieces of furniture they no longer felt they needed in the building. I managed to scrounge a desk, a low table, a file cabinet, a bookshelf and a spare chair. Now I am mostly outfitted for business. I sanitized the desk so I at least know I won’t catch anything from it. The lock for the 2 pitiful drawers hangs out of the bottom drawer – kind of like a panting dog’s tongue. I tucked the low table in a corner and now it is home to my stereo, a candy dish and a lovely set of 3 candles in stone holders. Right above it hangs my calendar, which has a different pro soccer player showing his stud-muffin legs each and every month. I have a variety of music wide enough to keep everyone amused for months as they try to guess what strains will come wafting out of my office next. I’ll have to reattach the back of the bookshelf and stabilize it before I actually put anything in it. My spare chair slightly resembles a dental hygienist’s perch. No sense in letting anyone (besides me) get comfy in my office. I have a lovely area rug as well. Maybe it’s not lovely, but it covers up the steel gray industrial indoor/outdoor stuff that’s on the floor.

One wall is brick. Very high up in the brick wall is a window, so I have some natural light. The other three walls are, to date, plain dirty white. I think that I will make a visit to Home Depot to find one of those wallpaper murals…a beach scene if at all possible. Then the Jimmy Buffet, Beach Boys and Bob Marley tunes will be the favorites. Perhaps my low table has enough space on it for a blender and a bottle of margarita mix or daiquiri mix…..and some little paper parasols…..

Our data lines have not been transferred so I have no e-mail, no internet access, no way to do 90% of my work. So I’m looking around for anything else I might scavenge and planning where to put some plants, an electronic dart board and a life size cut-out of Sean Connery wearing a full dress kilt.

Life is good.