The building I work in

I'm very lucky that I snagged a temp job in a friendly office in a unique building, with a supervisor that keeps extending my contract. My supervisor has been with the building for seven years, and two of the engineers have been there even longer. And the chief engineer has only been there a few years, but he's the type of guy who would remember everything anyway.

So here are the cool things I've learned:

They still have the original mail box. There's a chute that stretches all the way up to the 18th floor. I'm totally going to mail a few postcards from there, just to drop them down the chute. So, if you get a postcard with severely dinged corners, that's because it was dropped 10 stories down to the first floor.

There's an abstract painting in the lobby, with math equations and some abstract shapes that look like butterflies according to the engineer's kids. Uh huh. It's got good colors--not something I'd hang in my apartment--but the funny story is that originally, someone proposed that it should be a painting of a giant clam in that space. Like a still life. Of a giant clam.

When the building first went up, they didn't have enough money and only built half of it. Seriously. 18 floors on one half, two floors on the other. I can't remember when...the 20s? The 30s? I haven't read the history boards close enough. Anyway, in the 50s, they decided to finish it, in that sleek modern lameness on the left. Such a bummer. I think it's cute that the people I work with all take it a little personally that the building turned out half lame.

I got to see a floor that was being demolished. That was cool. All open space with pipes and poles and shattered brick. They do this every time a new tenant moves in and wants to rearrange the layout of their space.

Oh right, I'm temping. It's good enough, but it makes me miss teaching. This is a good thing: for once I actually have an opinion about how I want to make my money. I'll be here for 3 or 4 weeks. If I'm here for a full month, that'll cover rent and basic expenses through August. So, hooray for temping!

The only downside is that now the weeks go by really fast. Especially this week. I get up, leave at 7:30, return around 5:45pm, unwind until 10, and then go to bed at 11. I don't know why I was never this disciplined in Japan. Well, I have a few guesses (didn't really interact in the staff room and thus didn't look forward to going to work, had more responsibilities, which meant more last minute prep at home, oh right, and all the partying, trips to and from Tak, actual social life...right. That's why.)

Meh. Sure beats sitting at home stagnating.