Monday, January 26, 2009

Outtie

At about 11:30 this afternoon the power completely shut off in the building I work in. My thoughts immediately following this event were:

1. Dang, I was in the middle of typing something to Courtney. (Although we have also chatted when there was an earthquake where she is in LA and a fire across the freeway from my building).

2. So. Hoooowww long does the power have to stay off for it to mean that I can go home? 30 minutes? 1 hour? 3?

3. Bullocks! The elevators won't work and it's an agonizing 9 floors (that, I assure you feels a lot more like 18) down to civilization.

4. (and this is a thought that had flitted in and out of my brain since the moment I walked out of the house this morning): Why did I choose to wear the most ridiculously uncomfortable pair of shoes that I have never liked-slash-not worn in at least two years? I could barely get to my car this morning, never mind down the entire Hitachi building.

5. Wait...Did I have anything important to do? (See below.*)

6. Do I have any snacks stashed anywhere...

So a bunch of us sort of congregated around the comfy chairs that no one ever sits in. We stared out the window watching fire trucks (I assume for people trapped in elevators?) and pg&e trucks reach nearby buildings - We wondered aloud just how far the outage reached. We casually but politely danced around the subject of the early departure. We almost went to the restaurant at the hotel across the street figuring that if the company wants to pay me for a two hour lunch that it would be rude to decline. Their power was off too.

Some of the more responsible individuals spent the time filling out their 401k paperwork. Some had laptops and conference calls - two things that did not require the main power. Some of us did nothing.

And then after about 45 minutes we had had enough. Rumor had it that the CEO said we would sit it out and god dammit if we liked our jobs we'd sit it out with smiles on our faces. I refused to accept it.

And friend, let me just tell you how glad I am that I work with a group of people that were ALSO hoping to skip out early. At some point people started muttering "this is ridiculous" and "I can't believe we have to sit and wait". And so as though by sheer will power..The power of collective ambition...we finally got the word that we could leave. yabba dabba doo.



*And Yes. I did have something important to do. Something that I did not remember until I thought that very bullet point (#5). Not a great situation, but the blog, if you can imagine, totally saved my ass tonight.