– During my lunch break today, I ran into the maintenance couple that live in my building. They’re more of the cleaning crew, I think. They are an older couple; very nice, always eager to welcome people. Anyway, we ran into each other in the hall, and the lady, I’ll call her “M” (she may or may not be the real boss of James Bond – it would be the perfect cover, wouldn’t it), said that they hadn’t seen me around the building lately. I just told them that I’ve been around, which was true. She confessed that they didn’t know my name, they would just refer to me as “the little girl on the 2nd floor”. So we laughed and re-introduced ourselves. I knew her name but suddenly forgot his, but I will call the husband “F”. So we went our separate ways, but I walked away thinking about the description “little girl on the 2nd floor”..What, am I wearing, pig tails? Did they catch me skipping down the hallway chewing bubble gum? I haven’t done that in a month. I may not be the tallest kid in class by a long shot, but jeez I’m not a girl! I’m a woman. W.O.M.A.N. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting. I didn’t question all of this in front of the nice couple, it was just intriguing.
– A friend of mine sent me this message: “If you receive an email from the Department of Health telling you not to eat canned pork because of swine flu – Ignore it. It’s just SPAM.”
– A course catalog was mailed to me today for some community classes in my town. One was a course on sushi and hibachi cuisine. It is very hard to say “sushi lesson”. I just tried saying it again and it turned out better. Go figure. Anyway, that cuisine class is one of the many interesting classes listed in the catalog. I am fixin’ on taking at least a few during the Fall.
– I actually wagged my finger at my coworker today, telling him that when I’m on vacation, I don’t want any calls from work.
Coworker: Oh that was one time, an extreme case. (I had a sick day last week, and he called me up. His reason to call wasn’t as extreme as he made it sound, it could’ve been handled when I returned to work). “I needed log in information and I had to call you.”
Me: Well this time I will leave you the log in information. Just remind me before I leave next week.
Coworker: Okay..But that was one time!
Me: No, actually you called me another time when I had two days off!
Coworker: Oh..well that was probably just to say ‘hi”.
Me: Hm.
Emergencies, of course, are different, but he and my former boss called me way too many times during my last vacation. It was ridiculous. What’s worse is that I have a hard time ignoring calls from work. I keep thinking there’s an actual emergency. There’s nothing quite as nerve wracking, though, as seeing my company’s number pop up on caller ID. I explained this to my coworker, so we’ll see if he gets the message.
Eclectic Spaghetti 
Aw…I think that old couple sound sweet. Sure you are a w-o-m-a-n (insert Peggy Lee voice), but compared to them, you are a slip of a girl :-)
SPAM and sushi…you should get bonus points for this post.
I CANNOT believe your work calls you when your off. That is just wrong. Could there really be an actual EMERGENCY that couldn’t just wait, even if it were a few days? If so, you should be making lots more money, I suspect. Enjoy your vacation!!!
Mmmm, spam sushi.
I used to get calls from work while I was on vacation because they would misplace my paperwork from a trip or a customer would call looking for me.
I love that swine flu joke.
oh, and btw, hate to say it, but the world does NOT come to an end when you are on vacation. work can ALWAYS wait.
I would be really mad if work called on my vacation. I’m not getting paid so I don’t have to talk to those people. How’s that for an attitude?
I have a very hard time ignoring my phone too, which is why I seem to always get stuck going in extra.
That’s good you set your foot down and let those people know that vacation means vacation. Unless they’re paying you holiday rate for calling on your vacation, don’t call! And that’s prudent planning on your part to leave them everything that they need.
I hate answering a phone call from work, esp. on my days off, because they usually want me to come in! Thank goodness for caller id!
Clearly, the elderly couple think you’re young and hip!