The Last Hour

 It is 3:59pm. I have 1 hour and 1 minute to go. I will document this final hour like one of the hours in the show 24.

4:00 A woman has brought her daughter into the front lobby to see the fishquarium. Cameron the Facilities manager has come to check out a filter in the tank. He greats the little girl and mentions that one of the fish looks like Nemo. Clearly hip with the young crowd. 

4:01 He opens a cabinet under the tank to check out the filter. The mother takes her little girl by the hand and leads her out of the room. The little girl is disappointed she cannot hangout with Nemo.

4:02 Two people rush by –one comes in the building, one exits the building. These are the days of our lives.

4:03 A man walks through the door, stops, and turns around. He opens the door and he just came through and walks back into the hall he just came from. False alarm I guess.

4:04 The fish remain calm as Cameron talks with the janitor to make sure he’s cleaning the fish tank right. The janitor swears he has. No blame is passed aloud.

4:05 The janitor and Cameron walk away and I am left alone with the computer. But wait, somebody enters!... and then leaves out the front door. He’s calling it a night. At 4:05pm.

4:06 Just me and me thoughts. I think Cameron is a Libra. He’s really bright, easy-going but not in a lazy way, helpful, approachable, responsible, friendly… why isn’t he CEO? He pretty much runs this place from behind the curtains. Oh well. His boss is named Ray. I’m pretty sure Ray is a Taurus. Definitely more serious and managerial –though still polite.

4:09 Holy crap the phone rings! I answer. It’s a wrong number. Phew… close one.

4:10 A red headed woman that reminds me of Meredith from The Office walks out. She says, “Have a good one”. I say, “You too”. People here are nice like that.

4:11 My eyes are itching and burning. Random allergies? It keeps happening at night. My eyes will get itchy, so I itch them, and then they burn and start to tear. If it’s not my tongue burning from evil spicy Tai food it’s my eyes going all “allergic” on me.

4:12 My back is sore. Occupational hazard when you’re sitting behind a computer all day.

4:13 The sun is starting to set. Sun’s set to set at sunset, which is around 5:30.

4:14 Janitor returns to check on fish. They are still alive.

4:15 Janitor takes syringe drop and pours food into tank, accidently whacking a fish in the head. I find this humorous. Hehehehehe…

4:16 Wondering who came up with the idea to put ultra-violet light in a fish tank?... Wondering why they call it Ultra-violet light… it’s not that purple. Wondering…

4:17 A man visiting from aT&T doing maintenance work asks if I can buzz him back into the office area after he gets a drink from the cafeteria. Is there water in the cafeteria? I didn’t see any earlier. I had to “borrow” a diet Coke from the receptionist’s mini fridge.

4:18 He came back with a soda can! I think it was Sprite!!! Where the hell did he find that???

4:19 I feel less bad about “borrowing” the receptionist’s coke supply. Apparently there’s a place to get soda in the cafeteria.

4:20 I’m bored. And alone.

4:21 Momentary panic attack when I look for my black cell phone on the black desk and don’t immediately spot it.

4:21 (20 seconds later) Found it.

4:22 I stare around the desk and notice a pencil holder with a green ruler, a paper clip, a plethora of pens and pencils, and a pair of scissors. I remember my scissor story I wrote earlier. Genius. I pretty much reinvented the invention of scissors.

4:23 The sound of a distant door slamming drowned out by its own brevity and the ongoing hum of the aquarium less than ten feet away.

4:24 I take this moment to thank God for my brain. When there are no movies, music, videos, people, or games… my brain alone still has the power to amuse itself.

4:25 I debate mentally watching a movie in my head. I contemplate the amount of brain focus it would take, added to the difficulty of choosing a TV show or movie to “watch”, plus the distraction of nearby sounds and movements from passing cars on the road outside and the fish swimming in the tank.

4:27 I observe the time. 33 minutes to go.

4:28 I run out of thoughts. I announce this through type, continuing to put finger to click button, hoping I’ll just fake it until I make it.

4:29 I didn’t make it.

4:30 I decide to observe the cars outside. Ooooo. Traffic. Glad I’m not out there. It looks cold out there too. The trees are sparsely populated with leaves. It is a cloudless sky and a sinking sun. I spot my precious car in the parking lot. It’s waiting for me. How sweet.

4:31 I wonder how pissed off and angry cars would be if they could talk. They get left outside all day for pigeons to crap on them. Maybe cars would be annoyed and yet patient because they’re use to it.

4:32 A man comes to my desk and asks if I have any containers to put the Tai food from earlier in. I say, “Uhhhh…no.” He thanks me and walks away. I’m a receptionist. At a receptionist desk. I have a bag of candy to refill the complementary candy tray and a mini fridge with 2 sodas in it. That’s it as far as having my own personal cafeteria resources goes.

4:34 A white truck pulls up outside. A man in a brown coat wearing sunglasses walks to the building. He opens the door. “Hello”, he says. I nod back. “I have to go to the bathroom”. I watch as he walks into the office area. You just pulled up from seemingly out of nowhere…

4:36 I observe the time again. 9 minutes since last observation.

4:37 Door opens suddenly and I’m startled. A man nods at me and walks out of the building. It’s not the same man from the bathroom though. I still don’t know where that guy is. I assume in the bathroom, but I could be mistaken.

4:38 The man is back! He walks over to my desk, picks up the outgoing Postal Service mail, says, “Have a nice weekend”, and walks out. Holy crap, that was the mail guy!

4:40 Stomach cramp. I hate you Tai food.

4:41 I contemplate having to drive out to meet up with Ayu at the office. She has my WRL policy. I told her I want to reduce it to its minimum so I can get another policy with Pacific Life since I decided they were awesomazing after they gave a presentation at the office last week. I’m going to have 2 life insurance policies. What up! Just the same though, I hope Ayu calls to cancel meeting up later. I’m sleepy and we’ll see each other tomorrow at the office anyway.

4:43 Woman says, “Good night”  and almost walks out the front door, but then turns back and goes “Dang it, I forgot where I parked. I hate when I do that”. She then walks back towards the hallway that leads to behind the building. “Good night”, she says. “See yah”, I say.

4:44 Cameron has returned and is talking to the AT&T guy who figured out where the sodas are in the cafeteria. He is a wise man. And now he’s gone home for the night. Goodbye savvy AT andtheother T man.

4:46 I go back to observing cars. White car. Can’t distinguish the make and model. I don’t know cars that well.

4:47 Silver car. Sort of weird looking. Looks like something someone who’s into random sports would be into. Like someone in a bowling league.

4:48 White car. Hip. Looks like those “Cube” cars only less square. Oval I guess.

4:49 Whoa. Motorcycle turns into the drive. Why? We’re closing in 10 minutes. Why??? Maybe he has to go to the bathroom…

4:50 Looking out at cars across the road. I can’t tell if they’re parked or they’ve just been waiting for a light for the past 7 minutes. Ohhhh… they were just waiting.

4:51 I gaze out once more and notice that two trees standing side by side have branches folding in towards each other. Then 15 feet from them, further out, there are also 3 more trees in similar positions making what looks like a curve illusion.

4:55 Ugggg. Call. A man with an Indian accent wanted to speak to someone named Fateeth. I could not find that name in the directory. He didn’t know how to spell it so he kept trying to respell it and I kept trying to retype it. Fateth. Fatesh.Fatehsh. Fateeth again. So then we try his last name. Score! His first name isn’t Fateeth, it’s Sateeth. Jeez…

4:58 Peace out!