To polish or not

 

Some of you might know that painting my nails funky colors and designs has recently become "my thing".  It started a little over a year ago, and now I'm reading blogs, following boards on pinterest and slowly becoming quite good at painting with my left hand (I'm a righty, obvi).  I got fancy pens and I've done everything from the American flag, the Tiffany's box and bow to polka dots and accent nails.  I'm becoming obsessed.  Co-workers now come to my desk to check out what the new weekly nail design is.  People joke I should do it as a side business.  It's become a "thing" so much that people show me their nails.  Even my boss has commented how cool my glitter accent nail was.

That being said, I tend to look at people's nails now.  I don't judge if your nails are chipped or unpainted, but I definitely get excited when people come into the lobby with their nails done.  Shellac, Tips, regular paint, it doesn't matter.

So in comes Tracey.  She's applying for an accounting position.  She's young, adorable, and wearing a cute skirt/suit combo with amazingggg black peep toe pumps.  Immediately I hate my wedges and wish I didn't look so casual, and more fancy like her.

Then I see her nails.  She obviously just chopped them off, and removed all polish.  She sees my nails (probably because I'm staring at hers...) and immediately says how she loves my nails and ohmigod, you did them yourself?!  She goes on to talk about how she had hot pink nails and she sadly took them off to "look professional" in her interview.  I slump in my chair.  Do I not look professional because of my nails?!  If anything, wouldn't my nails make me a more interesting character, maybe me look more fun and adventurous person?

Do nails really make or break an interview?  Wouldn't it be a fun ice breaker?  I'm the same way though, whenever I've had an interview, it's always no polish or very subtle boring pale pink. 

So my friends, what do YOU think?  Keep the fun nails or take it off?    Ooo, maybe just wear one with a fun name like the ones below - Guilty Pleasure or Not Just A Pretty Face.  Now c'mon... that's a fun conversation starter ;)

Who let the dogs out?

I meant to post this on Friday, but forgot.  So, now you get to enjoy this today!

We have some unwritten "benefit" where employees are allowed to bring their dogs to work on Friday.  I have no idea if this is common in other companies, but I find it strange.  

I like dogs.  They're fun, much better than cats (sorry JM!) and when trained properly they can be pretty adorable.  I don't have one, mostly because I'm way too selfish to take care of something other than myself... and well, my fish.  But let's face it, even my poor gups go a couple days without food.  It's ok, I have a million, it's survival of the fittest at this point ;)

Also my sister and brother are allergic, my mom isn't really a fan of dogs, my apartment doesn't allow them, wet dog smell is nasty and let's face it - I changed my first diaper ever for my cutie pie nephew when he was like 4 months old (he's now 9 months, and I've probably only changed him about 5 times, haha!) - and yes, I was 27 and I had never changed a diaper... it's not THAT weird..) But do you think I'm going to want to clean up after a dog?!?  Ok, so there's a lot of reason but whatever that I don't have a dog.  But I like them.  At least, I like them when they're not at my work.

Today while bringing a sandwich platter to a meeting, I was minding my own business when I heard a weird noise behind me, like a jingle jangle noise.  I looked over my shoulder and saw nothing so I kept on going.  Once I reached the conference room, I was setting up the food where I almost screamed bloody murder. (And for those who know how high I can actually scream, you know it's a good thing I contained myself.) 

This BEAST decided to stick his nose in my butt while I was turned the other way, scaring the life out of me.  Took me a second to realize what the hell it was too!  I jumped a mile and cursed the dumb dog under my breath.  While trying to set up, this thing (who's name is apparently Henry) was trying to jump on me and eat both me and the sandwiches.  Get the hell off me!  It kept trying to stick his nose in all the food and that's when I decided it wasn't my problem anymore. 

I headed back to my desk knowing my sandwich was safe and sound - and completely dog free :)

A little dog slobber never hurt anyone, right? 

Uh, there's a fire in the lobby.

I'm just gonna jump right into this.  No fancy intro or story.  Just the facts.

There was a fire in the lobby.

Ok, maybe not a real fire, but I was sitting at the desk and smoke started shooting out from a light above me, and I would say that's pretty close to a fire.

And since there's no way I can just say that and not elaborate, here's your story :)

I had just gotten back from my lunch break and was trying to shuffle NG out of the lobby.  She has a half hour break, which is supposed to be 1:30-2pm, everyday.  This girl has decided that her break is 30mins from once she leaves the lobby.  So she takes her sweet time, getting her stuff together and normally leaves around 1:45 everyday.  One would think that she would have to come back at 2pm, but nope, we all know she walks all over me.  But that's a completely different story, and today, it worked in my favor to have her far away.

NG leaves, and within minutes of sitting at the desk, I'm instantly annoyed and want to leave.  I've now gotten to the point where I just sit there, with my head resting on my hand looking completely miserable.  It was then, that the light above me starting flickering.  

Awesome.  Either the stupid construction is making the lobby turn into a club with strobe lights, or there is a ghost in the office who's just as annoyed as I am.   As I sit there getting more and more annoyed, there was a loud POP! noise that caused me to look up.   That, my friends, is when I saw smoke billowing out over the light fixture.

Holy mother of God, I'm going to die at work.

I sat in my chair for a second, wondering "maybe it will just stop and go away" quickly followed by, "do I need to tell people, or can I just leave the building and save my own life.."   Instead, I calmly picked up the phone and called Jim.

"Uh, Jim... there's a fire in the lobby?"

"WHAT do you mean there's a fire?!!?!?"

"Uhh, well, there's smoke and it smells like burning out here"

CLICK!  oh good, Jim will come fix this!

8 MINUTES LATER JIM COMES TO MY RESCUE.  8 MINUTES!!!! Obviously my life was not in danger, because, duh, I would have just left, but still.  Next telemarketer call goes to you, Jim.  Sucka.

The smoke stopped, and the lobby just smelled terrible.  Property managers and the construction team all came out to inspected it, and it was "nothing important"  Right.  Sure.  You're obviously not going to tell me the light above my head caught fire and I could have died.

For the record, as I told every man who came into the lobby to look at the damaged light and was soooooooooo concerned about fixing it, I'm FINE! Don't worry about me!! 

What.
Ev.
Er!

NG came in, and spazzed, and continued to freak out for the rest of the afternoon.  Hi, you weren't there, and not only that, everything is totally fine now.  I know she was just upset she missed all the excitement, but I'd take a lunch break over sitting in a smoky lobby any day!

Also, for the record, NG is fine too.  She made sure everyone knew that.  Yes, we can all roll our eyes together.