Snow Day

Flaky bits of sky and ice swirled around my window today, somehow impossibly floating upward and spinning round in graceful cyclones between the spaces of buildings. I'd happily shut my alarm off at 6:30 am comforted in the knowledge that my office had been closed, snow day all the way.

Alas though, in today's corporate world's where everyone is blackberried in and carries around laptops like notepads and pens there is no such thing as a snow day at least not in the truest old school sense of the word. There is no respite from your tasks, the show, the spreadsheets, the presentations must go on like some self important all encompassing mass of bull shit...that is unless you care so little about your job that an excursion from the office gives way not to increased productivity in solitude by unquestionable slackery of the highest degree. My work computer idled in the background as I intermittently moved the mouse around at ten minute intervals to appear active to anyone checking in on my "green light" for our company's instant message communicator. In between these mouse moving exercises i half heartedly answered simple emails and even went "above and beyond" by phoning into two conference calls.

The snow came in waves, sometimes the outside of my window looked like a paper mache explosion while at others it was calm and still as could be. Not more than a month ago I would've started drinking the moment I heard the robotic voice on our company's weather line say "All New York Area offices are closed today," but that was then and now was sober. I was sober, and it was ok...somehow. Kicking the alcohol may have been a positive step for my health and wellness, but it held absolutely no impact on my piss poor attitude towards responsibility and office reputation. An office reputation that this Friday would likely suffer another irreparable setback as a night of good ol' fashion boozin with coworkers was on the cards, with the added spice of me being the center of attention in a potential blind date sort of hook up as a coworker tries to set me up with an unfortunate friend of hers (6 years my senior). This plot can yield nothing if not an interesting story and I plan to play my part to the highest degree of foolishness. The thing I'm best at seems to be screwing things up for myself and I think it's time I embrace that; while my feet get settled on my out of work life and I've found new stable ground I'll delight in watching my professional reputation light up in flames, after all it'll be me striking the first match after I've doused myself in booze.