Last Chance at a Campfire Mocha

Have you ever seen a black squirrel? I have. There's one in the neighborhood. I see it when I'm walking home from work along the river road. He's really quite striking but the poor thing keeps getting pushed around by the grey squirrels. They pick on him incessantly, always putting the black squirrel down, brother can't get a break.

The Caribou in Dinkytown is closing. Dinkydome will be expanding on that block by building underground parking and a 12 to 15 floor housing complex. This will take until September 2010, or so the PR people claim. In the meantime, Caribou must close. This is enough to drive my poor co-worker, Georgia, over the edge. Georgia has worked at the U for close to 20 years but she had a break in there for about a year where she officially terminated her appointment so she doesn't get the retirement benefits of a twenty-year veteran. If you terminate and then come back, you start over. She was eligible for the early retirement package offered this year but can't take it because the retirement benefits are not enough for her to live on. She has to keep working. She's a nervous type, a big worrier. She's also scared to try new things, not just apprehensive or uneasy about trying new things, she's downright scared. She's told me this several times. She's complimented me several times on my courage to go out and try to learn the new system. Georgia is floundering in the sea of change.

On the other side of the spectrum, there's Fred in Facilities Management. Fred is not just in Facilities Management, he is Facilities Management, he's the whole department. He alone is responsible for all of the physical space the college occupies which includes about 13 buildings across two campuses. He oversees all of the physical office moves which have been extensive and non-relenting since 2006. Plans are made and begun then plans suddenly change. Fred is the most anal-retentive person I have ever met. He puts me to shame. To look at him, you'd think he would be more like Georgia but he's the exact opposite. He's doing just fine with all of the chaos. We had a meeting last week where he mentioned that one has to be flexible throughout every aspect of their life if they want to get through it well. So while his office is perfectly laid out with every pencil in it's proper drawer tray and piles of documents laid out at 90-degree angles to each other, there's this whirlwind of activity around him. He's like the eye of the hurricane. Nothing bothers him. The only thing I don't get is why he painted his office dark navy blue. It's like working in the middle of the night every day.

Personality assessments aside, another weekend is upon us. I'll be attending the VilTen performance at BLB (hopefully it isn't sold out yet) and getting back to IAGG. Speaking of IAGG, I caught a small portion of the Second City documentary on PBS last night. Since the topic was Second City, I wasn't surprised to hear people gushing over how great Second City is and how awful it would be if Second City never existed but I think the Brave New Workshop is better. I could be biased, I'm not sure. I want every one to know how great the place is and how talented every one is that ever performs there but I don't want any bigwigs coming in trying to take over the place or worse yet, trying to take the talent away. Sorry improvers, you'll just have to sacrifice your future financial security for my own selfish wants. Stay here where I can easily see you.