9:41 PM - 13.12.04
Bingo
Apparently Ms Kitty was not pleased I returned to work today. I wasn't certain I was either, but someone has to earn enough to buy kibble - right? Stepped into my bedroom this evening to find that she and her kittens had toilet-papered the entire room. I have a very basic half bath off my bedroom. One enterprising cat obviously had found their way into the bathroom cupboard where the toilet paper is stored. Every piece of clothing, bric a brac, or book that wasn't shut away was tossed into the mess for good measure. Ms Kitty was crouched on top of my headboard with her eyes glinting yellow, as I walked in. The kittens were doing that adolescent - "so what are you going to do about it?" loll on my bed. So what did I do? Well filled up their food and water bowls and emptied out the litter box. Basic needs for children or pets should never be removed as part of any punishment. Then I went and got the big, noisy stick. Vacuum cleaner to you, dear diary. Normally when we vacuum a room we shut the cats out to save their delicate nerves. Not this time. Turned that beast on and the kittens all streaked under the bed like they'd been scalded. Didn't take Ms Kitty long to join them. Safety trumps dignity. Cleared up about half the room, then attended to supper and laundry for my guys and me. Our basic needs had to be given consideration too, right? Returned to my room about 45 minutes later and cleaned up the other half. Ms Kitty looked as though she felt deeply wounded by my response. Do the crime, do the time baby.
So work. There was a bit of a sense of unreality about going back. I think there are still vestiges of fear at the back of my mind, even though I know that isn't rational. My supervisor had e-mailed me Friday night and asked me to meet him in the lobby at 8 am today. I was there by 7:45. At 8:15 the co-worker from two contracts ago, who quit this assignment at the end of September, tapped me on the shoulder. Our supervisor was tied up in a meeting somewhere else. Would I wait for him up in the mezzanine in the coffee shop there - estimated time of arrival half an hour. I was people/traffic watching and just caught the movement out of the corner of my eye. Did you know an average of 50 cars go through a downtown intersection for every light cycle in non-rush hour traffic? I was getting to the point where I wasn't certain I even wanted to be there - just silly. Finally saw him running down the street at 9 am trying to get some of his day back, I think. We spent about 15 minutes talking about personnel issues then headed upstairs. Starting any new assignment is always a bit of a jolt and the extra wait had me quite rattled. Free floating anxiety I guess.
Anyway, the morning was spent getting oriented to the workspace, the assigned tasks, and procedures developed to date. Met some of the permanent staff - always an interesting process. I've been given a mini project on my own with some of the data I really love to dig around in. Brain Candy. I started working on it after lunch. The fellow who took over from the one co-worker - who worked for me as a tech support during the last election - came by a couple of times just to see how I was doing. The last time round he asked me if I was planning to go home. I hadn't realized I'd worked past my regular quit time by half an hour already. Too much interesting information to even notice the passage of time. Hope this work continues along the same line. It isn't a very long contract, but sometimes quality makes up for quantity. Right? Besides that, like just about every other project I've worked on when one start digging throught the data things start coming to light that no one was aware of and that also need to be addressed. Some of that already. We'll see where it goes from here. If nothing else I may really just let go and enjoy the next six weeks savouring what is there.
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