Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

It's not very often that I am tempted to quote "Fiddler on the Roof" but today is one of those days. Why, you ask? Because today is my boss' last day in our office for TWO MONTHS. Two. Months. 9 weeks. She will not be back until July. All of you out there who have a boss must understand what incredible news this is. I honestly thought this day would never come.

She's a soccer super fan and decided about a year ago that she was going to go to South Africa this year for the World Cup. Originally she was planning to take about 6 weeks off, which back in May 2009 sounded a) amazing and b) way too far away. But then she had trouble booking a return ticket and now will be gone for 2 entire months, pretty much to the day. It's everything I could ever want.

Officemate and I took her to lunch today, ostensibly to wish her bon voyage, but it's just as much as celebratory lunch for us as it was a "have a great trip" lunch for her. I am going to drink the crap out of a beer when I get home tonight. These next two months are going to be so great.

Now, here's where I should add that my boss is very nice. She is very nice. However, her job is to tell me what to do, so her 2 month absence means virtually no getting told what to do at work, which is really the dream. Officemate and I are going to make all kinds of changes during our time of autonomy, ready to fall back on the "well it happened when you were in Africa" excuse if our boss is unhappy with any of the decisions we've made in her absence. "Remember that two month vacation you took? Well the school didn't stop running while you were away, and someone had to pick up the slack. Stick around next time you want things done your way."

But that's way in the future. Right now, all I'm focusing on is coming in to work tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can call me in for a 2 hour meeting, send me an email with the instructions "please advise" or have me completely redo a document only to decide she liked it better the way it was before.

L'chaim, l'chaim, to life!

Brat Pack

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

Officemate and I are in full-on checked out summer mode. We're showing up late, we're leaving early, we're taking two hour lunches. We're leaving for 30 minutes to get ice cream sundaes without telling our workstudy students, little Type A darlings who freak out if faced with even a second of inactivity and lack of instruction. I came back to a note slid under our door and an email from a workstudy student wanting to make sure I gave her a new assignment as soon as I was back from getting ice cream and not inviting her.

As the day comes to a close, we've decided to take turns playing our favorite 80s theme songs.

S: "Greatest American Hero" theme song. (Also a bonus: George Costanza's answering machine based on the Greatest American Hero theme song: Believe it or not/George isn't at home/Please leave a message at the beep/I must be out/Or I'd pick up the phone/Where could I be?/Believe it or not, I'm not home)

Officemate: "Up Where We Belong" from An Officer and a Gentleman (if there isn't a gay porn movie out there called "An Officer in a Gentleman" yet, someone please get on that)

S: "Man in Motion" from St. Elmo's Fire

Officemate: "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun

S: "Facts of Life" theme song*

*Fun thing that happened when this was playing: we both started singing along right at "to be liv-ing up to your dreams." We are so in love.

Summertime, and the Living is Easy

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

One of my least favorite job-related questions is "do you get summers off?" The answer is no. I am not a teacher, and even though the school year is over, we still have work to do during the summer. That being said, summertime is calmer. We have very few students in the building and a smattering of faculty. Last year, after a stressful spring semester, I was really looking forward to a nice, relaxing summer.

But, no! My boss came up with stupid projects and plans that required meetings and deadlines and "goal spreadsheets." It blew. But not this year! Oh, no. She is going on an 8-week vacation and Officemate and are going to whoop it up. Here's what we have planned so far:

Thirsty Thursday: this is actually a staff-wide event that's existed for several summers. Each Thursday afternoon, a new staff member is in charge of creating a signature cocktail and sharing it with the group out in the courtyard. We have one boring old killjoy who vehemently opposes this summer tradition, but everyone else loves it.

Beer Thirty: We're going to pick a time of day during another day of the week that we designate as Beer Thirty, when we will go across the street to the pizza or Mexican place and get a beer.

Office 2.0: We're redecorating our office! New furniture, repainting and new wall decorations! As some of my photos may have indicated, our office is currently kind of a hot mess (and worse off now because of the pranksters' most recent endeavor), and we've decided this summer we're going to make it beautiful. We also decided that on the day it gets repainted, we're going swimming.

Ice Cream Showdown: We're all going to try that banana split challenge that our tiny little workstudy student was able to complete. Except we're probably just going to all go out for ice cream and watch her do it again because we kind of think it's gross.

Fridays Off: That's right, no worky for S on Fridays. I'll still be posting, but I imagine my topics will center around the following: 1) the best iced coffee in town, 2) why I hate Kelly Ripa, and 3) apologizing for not posting because I was too drunk.

Get ready.