The Office

It's been a particularly slow week, but today has been the worse. The highlight of the day so far has been a staff lunch for a retiring co-worker most of us had never met because he didn't work in our office. My editor, Steve, called the man "a model employee."

Upon leaving the restaurant, our assistant business editor, a hip late-20s gal, explains her New Year's plans as, "I'm not going to watch the ball drop, I'm going to watch this big zit on my face ripen." Priceless.

We return to the office and I'm delighted to see the red light on my phone blinking. I tell my co-worker, James, "Finally, after three days, I have a voicemail!" Life is hard as a reporter when no one returns your calls and apparently this week, no one besides the trusty business staff of the CCTimes is working. I quickly deflated after finding out the message was from my sister. About an hour later, James' phone rings and he jumps in chair, exclaiming, "What?!" Sad, but true.

Then there are headlines we couldn't make up if we tried:
Pack of Chihauhuas attack Fremont officer
...five itty-bitty dogs ``viciously attacked'' officer Rush, according to a Fremont police report.
Of course, the dogs couldn't reach anything higher than Rush's ankles, and the officer was treated and released from the hospital with only minor gnashes, police said.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/13517156.htm

And finally, here's an aside on why I love Maureen Dowd (famed New York Times political columnist and author of "Bushworld" and "Are Men Really Necessary?").
She spends three days in a ultra-luxe Mexican resort and spends the whole time craving nachos.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/travel/20cancun.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&en=7f2abc71dec27f8d&ex=1151298000&mkt=travellink2