Coffee Table Declarations
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Because of my central role at my company - answering phones, handling the travel arrangements, etc. - I get to interact with the people in the various locations around the country more than most of my coworkers do. This week, three of those people came to our office for a big important meeting. There were two from Arkansas and one from Tennessee and I'm not kidding when I tell you that they are some of the nicest people you could hope to meet. When they came in the door they had big hugs for everyone and greeted me as "Miss Katie" and acted like they were just thrilled to see me. It really made me feel good, as though however meaningless and mindless my job may be, I am still making connections and promoting positive energy in some way.
I had a conversation with the AR woman about all the snow on the ground and how cold it is here and I jokingly said I should move down there and she was all for it, even telling me that the amount of rent I am paying for my two bedroom apartment would get me a small mansion in her area. I'm a little suspicious why some places are that cheap to live though, like maybe there's nothing there worth living close to.
Additionally, I sent someone down to the AR office last week and due to plane mix ups and whatnot, she didn't get to her hotel in Little Rock until 2 am. They had given up her room but they weren't supposed to so they sent her to a hotel which unbeknownst to her was in a not-so-nice area of town where she was then solicited in the lobby by a gentleman who introduced himself with a name that I'm certain his mother did not bestow upon him at birth and then he politely inquired as to whether she had ever been with (and by been with, I mean slept with, or at least, that's what he meant) a man of his particular racial persuasion. It really shocked me to think about all this happening to this poor woman on a business trip in an unfamiliar city in the middle of the night because this is Arkansas for goodness sakes but you know, that sort of thing happens all the time in Boston I'm sure and we still have to pay an arm and a leg to live here.
I had a conversation with the AR woman about all the snow on the ground and how cold it is here and I jokingly said I should move down there and she was all for it, even telling me that the amount of rent I am paying for my two bedroom apartment would get me a small mansion in her area. I'm a little suspicious why some places are that cheap to live though, like maybe there's nothing there worth living close to.
Additionally, I sent someone down to the AR office last week and due to plane mix ups and whatnot, she didn't get to her hotel in Little Rock until 2 am. They had given up her room but they weren't supposed to so they sent her to a hotel which unbeknownst to her was in a not-so-nice area of town where she was then solicited in the lobby by a gentleman who introduced himself with a name that I'm certain his mother did not bestow upon him at birth and then he politely inquired as to whether she had ever been with (and by been with, I mean slept with, or at least, that's what he meant) a man of his particular racial persuasion. It really shocked me to think about all this happening to this poor woman on a business trip in an unfamiliar city in the middle of the night because this is Arkansas for goodness sakes but you know, that sort of thing happens all the time in Boston I'm sure and we still have to pay an arm and a leg to live here.
