2:00 PM - 03.11.04
Observe the Lilies
I'm still rflecting on yesterday dear diary. My sister's sister in law was about half an hour later than me arriving for our afternoon chat. I sat in the main lobby of one of the most upscale office/mall complexes in the city watching for her while concentrating on just people watching. A lot of people I knew wandered past. Some said hello while others had that look of intent concentration that often means their bodies have left the office but they haven't. Rule of thumb is to leave it that way unless you know them well. My Dad's neighbour tapped me on the shoulder at one point and asked me what I was doing there - I reciprocated with the same question. she had family visiting from out of town and they were power shopping. Uh huh.
About 15 minutes into the experience the fire alarms started going off. In our buildings there is a graduated sequence of ring tones and this was a level one ring. I was just a few yards from the main front doors so I just stayed put. I was enjoying the fashion and power parade way too much to move yet. It was just before the end of the traditional lunch hour so the main floor became very crowded as staff from the different towers waited, not wanting to get caught on elevators that might or might not operate. Besides why rush up to the top floors just so you can walk down 50 or 60 flights of stairs if there is a serious emergency right? With somewhere close to 60,000 souls working in the downtown core every week day there is a hierarchy of most important to least important buildings and within them, towers to attend where the emergency response plan is concerned. This building is very likely very close if not number one on the list. I watched as several firefighters in full gear wandered through the clusters of power suits. The oddness was that I knew that the wages of the people whose were there to protect all our lives were maybe valued at about one quarter of those who were there to facilitate business. Our society has such shallow values when it comes to compensating work.
Guessing jobs became my next occupation. The black suits and power ties were the lawyers. The black suits and the conservative ties were the bankers. The IT people stood out by their one of a kind outfits - some divine and some delirious. Then there was everything in between. The women were harder to limn than the men because the work dress code for us is much more relaxed and we don't much buy into the high fashion thing. How does one pop out for skiing or roller-blading in some of those designer clothes anyway. We have our priorities and they lean toward getting out in nature and away from the office when reasonable to do so. Since ma nature lies right along our river valleys even a lunch hour will do.
At home later I was googling to find some information in my job search. On search the top response brought up SIFY - one of the primo East Indian information sites. Even though I wasn't thinking about it the story that was being highlighted was about JK Rowlings website. She has an interactive setup where searching for clues can bring one more information on the next in the series of the Harry Potter books. Apparently she had just put another set of puzzles into the site so that was how I spent part of my evening last night. One of her windows is a door that is usually closed with a do not disturb sign on it. When one can open it it usually means some fairly substantial information can be found if one can figure out the clues. Last night it was information on three of the chapters in her new book - "The Half Blood Prince". The three chapters are "Spinner's End", Draco's Detour" and something in latin about a fortunate cat. I suppose that can mean Hermione's pet Crookshanks but he's at least part Kneazle into the cat configuration. So the evening passed part work part play and I'll work on the Elections Canada stuff later.
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