Currently Reading: Pride & Prejudice

Memorial weekend was relatively uneventful, though we did go see X-Men: The Last Stand and barbequed two days in a roll. I spent those days curled up comfortably on the couch with a book, actively working on what’s left on my summer to-do list, or lazily surfing around the net. I finished reading Tuesdays with Morrie, a book that’s inspiring and fulfilling. I’ve read books similar to this one before, but chose to read this one after the over-hype began. As I read, I could’t help but imagine from time to time that the average mindless teen reader would nod and nod in total agreement throughout the book, never stopping to second guess. At the end, they would react with sugarly praises, speaking highly - almost too overtly - of the book, and thus giving the book overvalue. Although I’m aware of most of the situations mentioned in the book, I can’t say I agree with some of Morrie’s views on them. It’s definitely best to stay positive throughout your life, even while facing death. It’s something we all long for, to understand how to die, so you can live your life to the fullest. But at the same time, understanding how to die is an extremely hard, if not nearly impossible task. It’s natural to be afraid to die. It’s natural to take things for granted at times, and it shouldn’t be something we must constantly be aware of. Most definitely, it’s natural to become increasingly depressed when especially you have something like ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), where your mind is perfectly healthy, but your body is not. So we can certainly try to stay positive even when the world is crumbling around us, but a lot of times that isn’t going to happen. And you know what? Sometimes I like being depressed, as much as it surprises others. We could all use a good cry once in a while, and we don’t need to be in a hurry to “cry in the morning, then let it go and don’t think back.”  People are too different for that. Some need more time than others to feel better again, and it’s certainly not a waste of time to spend a day or two being depressed. Do what you have to do. As long as you can bounce back, you’re fine.

Speaking of Tuesdays, there was quite an interesting event that happened this past Tuesday. We had been getting thunderstorms almost daily over the past week, and late Tuesday aftermoon had a pretty severe one. Around 5:15pm, the sky blazed and the thunder roared while little pallets of hail mixed with heavy rain whipped at the windows and rooftops due to the fierce wind. I was just getting off the phone when I heard a strange gurgling sound followed by continual splashing. I peeked out of my cube just in time to see the nearby drinking fountain regurgitating flood water at a rapid pace. Needless to say I was bewildered and frantically tried to shut down and unplug all electronic equipment (and boy, there were a lot of them). The floor of my cube was flooded in about 5 minutes, along with the rest of the aisles on either side and the bathroom next to the fountain. My two co-workers and I stood aside and watched while joking “bet you didn’t know the drinking fountain doubled as a spring fountain, haha!” The flooding fortunately only lasted for about 15 minutes, but I took some pictures with my camera phone just to make the event memorable.

Flood 1, Flood 2, Flood 3, Flood 4, Flood 5, Flood 6, Flood 7, Flood 8, Flood 9, Flood 10, Flood 11  (This last one is not of the flood. I just thought “Meeting the Fockers” was incredibly cute)

I’ve been interning at this workplace for about a month now, and I tend to enjoy working in a rather quiet environment, with dedicated employees who are aware of etiquette. However, I’m still incredibly surprised at how completely oblivious some people can be. From the amazingly loud phone talks in the adjacent cube to swift workers-turned-casual-conversationalists right next to my cube, the employees all seem completely unaware that other people are working right next to them. The workplace is still relatively new to me, seeing as I’ve only been exposed to it for about 4-5 months in my life so far. But I’m finding that one of the biggest problems is people’s selfishness and lack of awareness or care for those around them. I am eager to finish university and rid myself of drunk college partying idiots, but I’m fearing that I’ll only be diving right into another “idiocratic” society.