Pass the Mish-Mash, Please:

Everyone has crazy co-workers, right? Sure they do. So do I. Now, I'm not sure I should use her real name, given how much I might make fun of her at this point (and actually, some of you who read this already know her name anyway), so I'm just going to call her "Pam". Pam...she's one of those people you just really can't figure out. I mean, she's a nice enough person (if you don't upset her), and she means well (despite being slightly hypocritical), but frankly, I think she's a nut. I've only been working with her for five months but I've already accumulated a book's worth of stories about her.

Let's start with a couple of recent events. Before my department split into two groups, one in the office and one on the production floor, Pam made an almost daily trip out into the plant to observe the operators and make notes about any and all deviations she can find. Basically, she was the snitch. And she's really particular, she will report every little detail she can see. So, for someone who's that...for lack of a better word, anal, it was really surprising when I found out that she was a total slob. Her house, her car, her desk, it's all pretty much a horrible mess. Monica had to check something on Pam's computer and came back motivated to clean her own office. She said that Pam had the most disgusting keyboard she's ever seen. She didn't really want to touch it.

The other Pam story for today isn't that spectacular, just a little funny. Last week she came to work in a fairly conservative outfit: a sort of brown and tan-coloured top, black pants, and a pair of hot pink platform flip-flops.

Yeah...we all looked twice.

Keep in mind, she's gotta be in her fifties by now. She's been around forever.

Okay, switch gears. I was at the Street Festival this weekend and I separated from my friends briefly to go up to Yonge and Lawrence to get something. On my way back to the subway, I was following a Chinese family down the stairs. Here's how it went: the older generation (grandmother, I'm guessing) was trying to get everyone to give her their hats so she could put them in her bag. The father, carrying the stroller, scolded her for distracting them as they went down the stairs ("do you want us to fall to our deaths?"). The mother starts yelling at the daughter for being disobedient. The father tries to make peace between everyone because hey, they're supposed to be having a good time today. The moment they reach the bottom of the stairs, the grandmother starts grabbing the hats off the kids. All of this was happening in Cantonese. I moved away quickly after that because I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep from laughing. I swear, it was like I was watching my own family.

That's all for today. Hopefully, I will have done this correctly and you'll be able to comment from now on (yes, I have succumbed to the peer pressure...whatever).

"Narrow daylight entered my room, shining hours were brief, winter is over, summer is near, are we stronger than we believe?"