Fast Fasting

Ahh fasting, one of the classic ways of demonstrating devotion and piety (and getting woozy and lightheaded enough to maybe hallucinate a bit). Lisa is a fan of fasting, though she's not very good at it. Today she plans to fast for a few hours in the afternoon. Of course first she went out to subway to get a sandwich so that way she won't be too hungry while she fasts....

Skinner Would Be Proud

In the early days of psychology BF Skinner constructed certain mechanical contraptions to test learning and reinforcement of behaviors. The classic birds pecking at a button a thousand times to get a piece of food and whatnot.

He'd have been fascinated to be in my office today. Lisa was calling some number and got one of those damnably annoying voice-recognizing prompts. Instead of simply navigating through, she simply spouted "operator" and "customer service" over and over for what seemed like interminable minutes.

Then a food pellet came out of the phone and she was happy.

On the nature of felines...

The day before I left for vacation, Lisa brought home a tiny, mewling little kitten. Upon returning from vacation I got to hear how poorly behaved the little scamp was. Such a terror, attacking shoelaces and whatnot. What unusual behavior for a cat. Attacking strings.

TMI MTWTF

One of the biggest differences between any workplace, moreso than the duties, is the people. Nothing can kill a good job like annoying coworkers or a facist boss and a joyous, friendly group of people can make the most tedious job a walk in the park.

I've been through both situations to some degree. My coping technique for negative workplaces is to simply keep things at a business level, not getting embroiled in the conflicts and drama seething under the surface, while doing my best to maintain a professional level of courtesy with everyone involved. I'm never adverse to making friends at a workplace, I've hung out with coworkers outside of the office a time or two, but I've never felt that I had to bond with someone simply because we had the same person signing our paychecks.

Nothing irks me more than someone assuming we're a lot closer than we are. Now we enter into where this applies to my current situations. Lisa has constantly flooded me with WAY more information than I ever wanted to know about her. Do I mind hearing some little story about her cat or her daughter's impending graduation? Not in the least. That's the exact level of personal interaction I want to have with someone in this situation. Did I want to hear that she was "planning on being naughty" this weekend?

(Insert fake vomiting noises here)

I've been updated on news regarding her ex-con husband's drug habits, pregnancies and subsequent abortions, her complaints about her sister refusing to wear underwear and about a million other minor details of her life that I've blocked out for the sake of my sanity.

I suppose that to a certain degree it's my fault for not saying something in the beginning, but am I wrong in feeling that I shouldn't have ever had to?