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Jan. 25th, 2010 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogYou know what makes me feel really good?
Someone came in with a computer that was booting up really slowly. He hung out next to me for ten minutes or so while I uninstalled a few things he didn't need, and set a bunch of programs to stop rudely loading at start up and wait politely to be asked for their services instead.
While I worked on it, we chatted about random stuff like where I live, what my commute is like, my upcoming move, Moira's job backkgound and current unemployment, and other nice, polite chit-chat. In the end, his computer was finishing the boot process about ten times as fast, and I felt like I'd had a nice, pleasant conversation where I'd made a little bit of a human connection. It might be superficial, but it was still fulfilling and that, together with me fixing his computer and solving a problem for him to make his life easier, makes me happy. He was friendly and appreciative, and I felt appreciated and happy to help.
It's sad how infrequently I get to do that at this job anymore. And that's part of what's burning me out I guess. It's so rare that there's a problem I can fix that way.
On a sidenote, it would help a lot too, just for my own mental well being, if I could build on these little interactions into something resembling a friendship, or at least a work acquaintanceship. I'm trying really hard to remember what he looked like, but I just can't. His skin was a little darker than average. He had short black hair. I can't remember if he wore glasses or not. There's something weird about glasses to me where, though I find them really attractive, once I'm not looking, I can't remember if someone wears them. Ant that's all I know. Apart from his name, and the gist of my conversation with him, which will fade away before too long without a face to tie it to.
I think I hear him talking outside my door. And that means I can't go and get water until after he leaves. Because if I do, I might snub him by acting like I don't recognize him. Or I might act like I recognize him and it turns out to be someone else entirely. I'm sure that I ignore people all the time here who I'm supposed to know just because I don't know that I know them. It wears on me. It really does.
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I don't have access to the pictures on my hard drive at home that I want to post, but I have this one on my comptuer here at work!
Our New(er) Cat, Stormy
We've had Stormy since the Spring of 2008, but I haven't posted any pictures of her yet.
This one, admittedly, isn't a great one. She needed different lighting, especially with her white spots that get easily blown out. I'll keep trying!
Stormy had her name already before we got her from a family on Craig's List who needed to find her a new home. (They'd just had a child, and the baby was allergic.) No confusion, or identification, with me, Stormdog, was intended. That goes for Sabrina, our other cat, too, who shares a name with a certain bear we know.
When Stormy first came into the house, she spent all her time hiding up inside the underlining of our couch. These days, she's much more adventurous, and will often be found wandering into my room while I'm working to get up on her hind legs and *whack whack whack* me on the thigh for attention, or on top of the futon in the living room waiting to pounce on Sabrina.
Someone came in with a computer that was booting up really slowly. He hung out next to me for ten minutes or so while I uninstalled a few things he didn't need, and set a bunch of programs to stop rudely loading at start up and wait politely to be asked for their services instead.
While I worked on it, we chatted about random stuff like where I live, what my commute is like, my upcoming move, Moira's job backkgound and current unemployment, and other nice, polite chit-chat. In the end, his computer was finishing the boot process about ten times as fast, and I felt like I'd had a nice, pleasant conversation where I'd made a little bit of a human connection. It might be superficial, but it was still fulfilling and that, together with me fixing his computer and solving a problem for him to make his life easier, makes me happy. He was friendly and appreciative, and I felt appreciated and happy to help.
It's sad how infrequently I get to do that at this job anymore. And that's part of what's burning me out I guess. It's so rare that there's a problem I can fix that way.
On a sidenote, it would help a lot too, just for my own mental well being, if I could build on these little interactions into something resembling a friendship, or at least a work acquaintanceship. I'm trying really hard to remember what he looked like, but I just can't. His skin was a little darker than average. He had short black hair. I can't remember if he wore glasses or not. There's something weird about glasses to me where, though I find them really attractive, once I'm not looking, I can't remember if someone wears them. Ant that's all I know. Apart from his name, and the gist of my conversation with him, which will fade away before too long without a face to tie it to.
I think I hear him talking outside my door. And that means I can't go and get water until after he leaves. Because if I do, I might snub him by acting like I don't recognize him. Or I might act like I recognize him and it turns out to be someone else entirely. I'm sure that I ignore people all the time here who I'm supposed to know just because I don't know that I know them. It wears on me. It really does.
-------------
I don't have access to the pictures on my hard drive at home that I want to post, but I have this one on my comptuer here at work!
Our New(er) Cat, Stormy
We've had Stormy since the Spring of 2008, but I haven't posted any pictures of her yet.
This one, admittedly, isn't a great one. She needed different lighting, especially with her white spots that get easily blown out. I'll keep trying!
Stormy had her name already before we got her from a family on Craig's List who needed to find her a new home. (They'd just had a child, and the baby was allergic.) No confusion, or identification, with me, Stormdog, was intended. That goes for Sabrina, our other cat, too, who shares a name with a certain bear we know.
When Stormy first came into the house, she spent all her time hiding up inside the underlining of our couch. These days, she's much more adventurous, and will often be found wandering into my room while I'm working to get up on her hind legs and *whack whack whack* me on the thigh for attention, or on top of the futon in the living room waiting to pounce on Sabrina.
