Lost Boy *

In which our Hero finally decides that maybe having a name tag would not be such a bad thing

I’ve decided to get my voicemail set up, at work. We were told we should get this taken care of when they set up the new phone systems, 3 years ago. And I did tell them they hadn’t set me up correctly, but they didn’t do anything, and I didn’t really care, so I let it go. And haven’t had voice mail for 3 years.

It’s not a big deal, really. I mean, I’d only gotten a phone and a regular about 3 years before that, and I’d been here 2 years prior to that where I’d just been a nomad in the building, squatting at empty desks and vacation-abandoned cubes and meeting rooms till I got kicked out. I didn’t have a client email address, but that didn’t matter, my employer provided me with one, and really one address is as good as another as long as people know it. Wait, this doesn’t make all that much sense going backwards. Need to start this epic somewhere.

In the beginning was the (pass)word. They needed me to have a password on their system, but they didn’t want to actually get me set up as an employee because that would trigger a license charge, so they hacked me an account that wasn’t actually a Exchange account (which is their main user authority) but still worked. Wreaked havoc on the rare occasions I was so stuck that I needed to call support and they’d tell me I don’t have an account. “Well I do, just not the kind you’re thinking of.” Hell, my troubles now are still outgrowth from that fateful decision.

Anyway, my years as a cubicle hobo wound down and I got a desk and a phone because the new manager actually needed to find me. But I was still a contractor and we were a long way from the heady days when they’d actually get those engraved nameplates that go into the cubicle walls. Hell, you can track the fall of civilization by those, the old-timers have plastic-with-etching, the newer folks have surprisingly good looking fakes laser printed, and vagrants like me have.. nothing. And then came the phone upgrade, and how can you have your voicemail if you don’t have your Exchange credential. So they fixed me. Enough to get me an extension. Not enough to have voice mail.

But who cares about voice mail? Having voicemail is just a thing that you have to check and I have no interest in being that reachable. Instead, my client is conditioned to email me because they’ll get a faster response, or to call my cell phone if they need to speak to me right away. With the side benefit that they rarely know if they’ve called me before I get to work or when I’m working from home. No big deal.

Until you order some stuff online and deliver it to the office since they have a staffed mailroom to accept delivery. Until the guy who usually delivers packages vanishes for reasons I have yet to identify but hope is a much deserved vacation for one of the nicer people there.

I’ll admit, I probably should have checked on things sooner, but packages show up when they show up, and a watched pot never boils, and low-end shipping options frequently leave little info about the time between “Shipped-by-which-I-mean-Billy-is-using-it-as-a-chair-till-next-week” and “Delivered-in-that-it-might-be-somewhere-in-the-vicinity-of-the-destination-I-don’t-know-I-Just-gave-it-to-this-guy.” And I was busy being the Magnificent Serin enmeshed in crisis. So it wasn’t till this week, that I really noticed that… “Hey, I haven’t actually gotten a delivery of any kind in weeks.”

So I went to the mailroom where the other guy, who I’ve been casually talking to for years, finally put name-to-face. “Oh! You sit up on [floor] by [neighbor] right?” Yeah. “We tried to call.” No you didn’t, the phone logs that. “We went around, but we didn’t see your name!” Well, that’s true, that’s missing. “We should have emailed you.” Yes, you should have. My god, the rant I would have unleashed on them. But then I would have had to put down the boxes to gesticulate angrily, and… and… toys!!

Like a box of copies of “So Silver Bright” in gorgeous hardcover. And some software, movies and games. Some other books. Electronics. I feel like yesterday was Christmas. And today is pay-the-credit-card’s eve.

So there.

*Edit*

Dear Dallandrah, :P. Love, Serin.

Phonecam pic of my cabinet at work, lucky I took that. I only ordered 5 this time, and as you see I’ve given one to Hollywood, and taken one home already but it’s still neat to see the row.