Work Place Blues

Word of the Day Thursday, January 14, 2010

draconian

\dray-KOHN-ee-uhn; druh-\ , adjective;

1. Pertaining to Draco, a lawgiver of Athens, 621 B.C.
2. Excessively harsh; severe.


Loretta let out a sigh. One of those deep, loud, passive aggressive sighs that are meant to send the message that one is annoyed. And she was egregiously annoyed. She looked back down at the form she was transferring into the computer and tried to concentrate. There they were again. Giggling about something on the other side of the cubicle. She sighed again and heard one of them distinctly whisper something about "huffing and puffing like a train".

That is it, she thought. She logged out of her computer, pulled her purse out of the bottom drawer of her desk, and marched off to the bathroom. She made a bee-line for the single stall bathroom where she could lock the door and have the entire bathroom to herself. Happily it wasn't occupied, and she gratefully locked the door behind her.

She set her purse down on the counter top and took a look at herself in the mirror. A little on the plump side, with the beginnings of jowls. She stretched her neck out to make them disappear. She tightened the hair tie around the draconian bun she wore on the top of her head and smoothed out the collar of her shirt and cardigan.

Those two obnoxious kids paling around the office like they were Batman and Robin, thinking they were such hot stuff and too good to be working there. They didn't know how lucky they were to even have a job. She knew plenty of people at her church and the clinic where she volunteered that would be ecstatic to be in their position.

She knew she shouldn't let them upset her so much, but the unfairness of it all just wound her up. Luckily she always came to work prepared.

She pulled the chair from the corner of the bathroom into the middle of the room and flipped the loud, old ceiling fan on. She climbed on top of the chair and pulled the pipe of pot and lighter out of her purse. She quickly lit up and took a deep drag. She blew the smoke directly into the ceiling fan and sprayed a generous amount of Aqua and Silver, the old lady perfume of choice, around the bathroom.

Ha, she thought climbing down off the chair, feeling much more relaxed, and they all thought she was in here taking a shit.