It came up because
my departing VA colleague K… asked about my blog and I said I’d send my
link. And then I looked the blog over to
see what would be the most embarrassing thing to have “out there” with a work
friend.
And, I couldn’t send
the link….. (yet)
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| Ottauquechee River |
I had recently
overheard (partook in) a conversation [Spell checker did not underline
‘partook’ so it is really okay to say that too] about (implied) stupid people
who take pictures from the driver’s seat of their moving car. There had been a gorgeous sunrise one
morning in Vermont and someone at the VA said they had pulled off the road just
to snap a pic…… and that’s how the topic came up: that some people DON’T pull
off the road to snap a pic, and how dangerous
( read: DUMB) that is.
And I smiled and
perhaps nodded but sure didn’t divulge that it is sometimes me who
doesn’t pull over. Certainly sometimes the driver is snapping photos when there
is another passenger in the car and THAT, I can totally agree, is
S T U P I D. But I consider myself as a total exception….
I only do it if there is no one else for photo snapping…..i.e. a 4 hour commute
(one way) from China, ME to White River Junction, VT by myself…… When the
vistas are astounding, I have my camera at my fingertips and I can ‘click’ with
one hand AND NOT EVEN LOOK THROUGH THE VIEW FINDER. (I’m not THAT dumb!)…… so, for every 6
randomly-pointed shots, I get about one I can post on this blog….. And I’ve
seen LOTS dumber distracted drivers than that ….. i.e. lighting fire to a
cancerstick at the end of a face, putting on mascara, fiddling with iPod/CDs,
and all manner of unidentified reasons to weave across white lines or onto the
rumble strip…… now THAT’s not safe….
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| Add caption |
But, before I am
able to send my blog link to K…., I feel I must promise myself (and all
humanity) that, no matter how gorgeous the view, I won’t take pics at 55mph
again…..
There! Now I can
tell you about K….., the secretary to the Chief of Staff
Even before I
arrived at the newest work detail, I received emails from K …..to tell me where
to go when. Since then, he has been my compass in Vermont for nearly 6 months. He
triages which concurrent meeting I should be at and directs me to new locales with
printed, collated handouts. He name-finds for me. He keeps me out of VA-jail. He
runs block for me. He listens to me complain about a 4 hour commute or an
onerous work task. The epitome of professionalism, he has historical knowledge,
50s-TV-shows knowledge, VA savvy, JAG court-reporting expertise, common sense
and a super sense of humor. And now he’s taken another job to a southern
VA…..(for family reasons, he says—not because I’m so high maintenance or dumb
with a car camera.)
What? I’m not the first to have a work spouse?
Sociological and psychological implications
With so many of the quality hours of a day spent at work, having
someone there who has an intuitive understanding of the pressures,
personalities, interactions, and underlying narratives of the workplace society
can add safety and comfort to what can otherwise be an alienating environment. (the ever-quoted and selddom fact-checked Wikipedia)
Back to going into
an alienating environment……
(and I haven't shared the link with K...... yet)
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| Okay, this one is from my office window; not a drive-by pic |
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