(9:00 a.m.) It's utterly georgeous outside today. I got off at the Metro stop before mine, and walked the five or so blocks to my building, just to experience it. Warm enough to remind one of mid-spring. Too bad it's going to get colder and stormy later in the day. They tell us to look for snow tonight.
The warm weather makes me feel violent, giddy. As though I could gash my arms with my fingernails and not feel the pain. Springtime is dangerous for me, and everyone around me. I get more unpredictable. I feel like a cat stretching in a shaft of sunlight.
Yesterday was interesting. I stayed late, talking to Tony in my office. You know, I'd always assumed Tony had a girlfriend, because he's cute, he's funny, and he's just the friendliest guy I know. He once loaned me $40 without asking me what it was for, and offered to help me pay the guy whose car I hit. Good thing I didn't take him up on the offer, because I'm having enough problems paying him back the $40 as it is. But it would seem he doesn't. He has friends, some of them are female, but no girlfriend. We didn't discuss his love life, though.
We were discussing Alex. He's been claiming to his friends that he'd gotten a promotion, from Office Automation Clerk, GS-4, to Office Automation Assistant, GS-5. I got so mad, that I went back and told Tony. Tony looked up Alex's Social Security Number (since we're personnel, we've got a listing of everyone in my Top Secret Government Branch), went into the database, and checked. No promotion. Alex has problems.
Anyway, that led to a discussion of my lowly GS-2 status, and the fact that I should be a GS-3 at this point (6 months experience as well as over 1 year of college (and yes, that is only counting the classes I passed, okay?)). So Tony made a few calls, and we discussed bitterly my lukewarm performance appraisal from last year, because Alex was my former supervisor's pet. Turns out I only get GS-3 if I get a really good performance appraisal. Bastards. So Tony has decided that he really doesn't like Alex.
Then, just as I was leaving, Claire took me aside and told me that she thinks they're promoting me. Apparently she'd seen the paperwork on my supervisor's desk. We'll see. I'm not one to trust the words of others.
Dirk and I were going to go out for Chinese food last night, but I changed my mind at the last minute. Instead, we went to Bobbie's. Trite, predictable, but I wasn't in the mood for Chinese. Plus the Chinese places around here (except for Palm Tree, which is a Chinese all-you-can eat buffet) all have that unearthly feel a restaurant gets when they don't have very many customers. Most places do delivery and/or carryout, and that's where the bulk of their business comes from. I dunno, I guess it's a tradition of sorts: you don't actually eat the food in a restaurant, you bring it home in those neat little cartons and eat it. The only crowded Asian restaurants I have ever seen are either A) in Chinatown, B) Japanese steakhouses (they don't deliver), or C) having a Sunday all-you-can eat buffet.
(2:30 pm) I should have posted this entry before now, but it took me all morning to write what little is there. I've been drinking diet cola all day, and am currently suffering from the shakes. I'm going to put this up now, even though it feels unfinished.