Adventures in the accounting office

It’s Friday, payroll day. I bring the completed payroll (I keep typing ‘payroll’ as ‘payrool’) and my joyful spirit to the accounting department where we celebrate endlessly my existence. I answer the trivia question, “Who’s your hero?” with “Rickie Fitz” which bring makes everyone look at each other sideways and say, “Do you party?” “What?” “Do you PARTY??”.
Then everyone asked me if it was time to smoke. I get to be the queen of the accounting office because whenever I have to smoke I go over there and make one of them go outside with me. Only one person in the office smoke, but they all get to take turns (or go as a group) going outside with me as I smoke. During our smoke breaks they tell me their problems, I give advice and everyone is happy. Alas, I started the day with only 4 cigarettes, 2 were smoked on the way to work, one was smoked on a break with another person who got my last cigarette. No smoke break.
So we did the only reasonable thing, Jessie grabbed me and we went to the convenience store and I bought hugely overpriced cigarettes, then over to McDonalds where we picked up food for other people (read my earlier post about not paying for food when you can get it for free) and back to the accounting office.
People got their food and we went out to smoke. First just me and the doyen of accounting went out, he told me his personal issues and i listened intently as i smoked and offered up sage advice and encouragement. Then Jessie came out and I was compelled to have another cigarette and we discussed girl on girl wrestling and THUG LIFE tattoos and hair care.
Then the doyen offered to let me watch him take off his shirt as he changed to go for a walk, I accepted, he got shy. Dammit.
I love the accounting office and they love me (well, except for one person in the accounting office who filed a complaint against me for being flippant, but I think she’s gonna get hers real soon). I’m gonna miss them when I go.

The Eternal Debate

Every summer the college I work for hosts high school kids for a couple weeks at a time to do things like learn how to be an artist (there are classes in mismatching your clothes, god-complexing, and ironic rockabilly this year). The kids live on campus and occasionally get busted and sent home for underage drinking.
They also get fed.
The cafeteria is normally closed in the summers, but during these sessions (2 weeks at a time) they open to feed the kids. The kids eat free, staff and faculty not involved in the process pay. Since i am such a kind and gentle soul who helps facilitate cafeteria functions when things break, i also get to eat for free.
Eating for free is good, but the food is bad. So I’m torn. I’m hungry, I want to eat, I don’t really want to spend money if I don’t have to, but the food sucks. Yesterday I figured salad bar would be a good idea. I was wrong. All of the vegetable (broccoli, chick peas, cherry tomatoes) had the same weird bitter taste. Nothing tasted right. Today the bbq pork sandwich had little to no sauce. The roast beef sandwich the other day wasn’t very good either.
Actually, the problem is that everything tastes like a lack of effort and cut corners. It’s all cheap, second rate service pack food. There is no love or thought or effort put into anything. Pudding from giant cans, generic miracle whip, oily french dressing.
I hate to complain about something that’s free, I really should be more appreciative. Or, more to the point, if I don’t like it, I could just go pay for food that was better, but I don’t want to. I want to complain, but I’ll eat it out of sheer laziness.