2004-01-21

Things are surprisingly OK back down in the Directorate of Dumbasses. For one thing, most of the crew haven�t seen me in several months, and over the past few days I�ve heard �Your hair looks great!� (Why yes � yes it does) and �Have you lost weight?� (In fact I have, thank you!) about ten times each. A girl simply cannot hear those two phrases too often: I�m buzzing about the place with a smug glow of foxy self-satisfaction.

As far as work goes, they�re keeping me a) satisfactorily busy, and b) far, far away from my nose-blowing, aloud-reading, teeth-whistling, off-skiving, mightily annoying former boss. My first day back I offered, in the spirit of perhaps repairing the charred and desiccated rubble of burnt bridges, to do any quality control work she needed done; so far not a single briefing note has landed on my desk. So much the better: I�ve had a tentative offer to go work for another former boss � the one who swears like a sailor and lends me E. M. Forster books. Also, I haven�t had to take a pay cut. I do, however, miss having a window in my office, but I�ve taken compensatory measures: namely, coming in late in order to soak up extra early-morning sunshine. (So, Poor Work Ethic! We meet again!)