Last night, as we were sipping wine, I spouted out some piece of unsolicited advice and Delle nearly did a spittake as she said, “That’s coming from an Office Admin!”

“Ah, ah, ah,” I corrected her, and took another sip.  “Staff Analyst.”

I took this job late last year, and it not only moved me up the payscale in quite  a large leap, but it also moved me to another building, in another facet of the program.  Needless to say, there is not much call for me to revisit my old area. 

Today, for the first time since I left with my box o’ stuff, I went back over there.

And I wish I were exaggerating, because it was almost embarrassing, but you’d have thought the Pope just walked into the building.  Someone actually told me, “We didn’t realize how much our job sucks until after you left,” while hugging me.  It’s a very strange thing to see people react so strongly to your return.  People swarmed me with family photos (OHMYGOD, how the kids have grown!), they all wanted to see my wedding ring (I didn’t explain that it was my second one), and I wondered why I had ever left.  I really, really loved those people.

As I was walking back to my building, the VP of the program made his way out to the parking lot.  “Warming up quite a bit, huh?” he said.  I nodded and smiled.  “You can be as glum as you want, Sarah,” he said, “but I’m seeing the sun today for the first time in a week.”  And he trodded off.

Sometimes, I wonder why we climb the ladder.  My new job keeps me busy, and helps a lot in the bill-paying department, but I wonder why we sacrifice so much to sit in a cube day-in and day-out. 

I was greeted, upon my return, by my red Swingline stapler.