Free to good home
Moving to a new office, as I’m doing this week, is a good opportunity to clean out the old stuff and start fresh. In the past few days I’ve discovered that I didn’t need about 90% of the old scribbled meeting notes and other junk collected over the past three years and filed haphazardly away at my desk. And there’s a few other things that I’m getting rid of that have created some conversation at work.
“Ineptitude”
My “de-motivational” poster from Despair.com doesn’t fit with my new decorating theme of Zen Mascots, so it’s up for grabs. It reads, “Ineptitude: If you can’t learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.” I offered it to my suite-mates, but there were no takers at first. Then Amanda called out, “Cavin — that poster is perfect for you!” Ouch! (For the record, though, Cavin is whatever the exact opposite of inept is; Amanda was just kidding.)
Peanut butter
Over the past couple years I’ve been taking lunches and dinners to work from time to time. A few months ago, Chelsea suggested that I take a loaf of bread and peanut butter and jelly to keep at the office since that would make for an easy meal before my evening classes. I did indeed enjoy a few PB&Js, but my preference for other things like spaghetti, or enchiladas, or Chick-Fil-A eventually led to the peanut butter jar being pushed out of sight and out of mind. So when I uncovered it the other day, imagine my surprise when no one in the office was interested in taking it off my hands! It hasn’t even expired yet.
Knick-knacks
My new Zen Mascots theme calls for simplicity, which means most of the knick-knacks that decorated my old desk must go. These include:
- A talking plush “Mr. Bigglesworth” hairless cat toy, inspired by the Austin Powers movies, that says things like “we don’t gnaw on our kitty.”
- A small TCU horned frog doll. Yes, it is a mascot, but it is not Zen.
- One three-year old can of Play-Doh. Unlike the peanut butter, it had passed its expiration date.
- A lava lamp. Goes with more of a dorm room theme than Zen Mascots.
- Cranium game. I’m not getting rid of this one completely, just not displaying it in the new digs.
- And so forth.
So let me know quick if you want any of this stuff — except the peanut butter. I’m holding on to it until at least February 17, 2009.
Ben on May 18th 2008 in Work
Amanda responded on 22 May 2008 at 2:26 pm #
I was just kidding about the ineptitude.
I think you should do a blog on all the intelligent sayings your employees come up with. A best of the worst list. You probably would not have to try very hard to come up with, we seem to manage to have poor communication skills all on our own!
Faye responded on 16 Jun 2008 at 3:24 pm #
When I was cleaning out my desk before leaving my place of employment, I too, found a jar of peanut butter…and a really big bottle of Vicks cough syrup. Thought I’d share.