Confidential

Some of you may or may not know that my present gig is with de gummint. There are some extremely aggravating things about it and others that I like. One of the things I like is it's an old building with a lot of marble. There are fossils in the marble. I have so far found two. Alas, it is not the sort of place where a person can enjoy herself wandering about looking for fossils. It is maybe not maximum gummint paranoia kind of place but there's quite enough of that sort of thing. So I have to look for my fossils on the sly, wishfully, with a brief prayer to the God of Fossils to give me a sign, a sighting. They have to come as a gift. Which is fine. Another virtue of the age of the building is that it is divided into offices not cubicles. Offices. With doors. Where you can walk around the desk. Where people knock. Mind you, cubicle culture seems to have migrated in anyhow. A man came into my office one day and helped himself to the lightbulb in my desk lamp. Did I mention that the desk is a desk, made of wood, with drawers and brass drawer pulls? And the desk lamp is brass, with a shade and an incandescent bulb? Since the lamp was not switched on he assumed I didn't need the bulb. I was so completely without presence of mind that I just said, "Sure." Little things like these are pleasing. But here is a good thing I have learned. The mere act of walking down a hallway with a piece of paper somehow conveys the impression that you are a busy and serious person. I'm getting a kick out of this. I frequenly have to walk down the hall with papers in my hand and feel frightfully official and busy. The thing is I am actually busy. But the impression of business is a slightly different thing. Especially when I'm wearing heels.