The Mystery Goose Post

Across from my office building there is a multistory parking deck for a neighboring office building. It’s about 3 stories shorter than my window so I have a pretty clear view of the entire roof of the structure. It came to my attention last week that there is an unexpected inhabitant of the rooftop in the form of a lone Canadian Goose. Every morning around 10 the goose wanders to the corner of the roof closest to my building and stares out across the street, He’ll stay there for a good 2-3 hours barely moving. Occasionally he will leave by noon-ish depending on the day, and often reappear briefly later in the day. I find it comical how clockwork his activities are. I only noticed last week, but he has been there constantly every day since. I wonder how long he has laid claim to that rooftop? What is the fascination with that particular corner of the complex? Is he waiting for a V of geese to fly overhead and join up with them? I’ve seen him fly away, so it’s not like he’s stuck in a goose prison up there. My theory is he’s a trained spy-goose for the Canadian government. There are government offices around here and an unusual amount of helicopter traffic in the area….hrm.

The Office Lurker Post

My company operates on three floors of an office building behind Tyson’s 2. There are other tenants in the building which I believe spans about 9 floors or so. ID badges are issued to everyone that grants access to the necessary levels and offices. Anyway, being sick and slovenly in the mornings last week led me to forget my ID badge on Wednesday. I made do all day by borrowing co-workers’ tags when I needed to hop floors or go on a break. However on one particular trip away from my desk I forgot to procure a card and found myself locked out. I began dialing a co-worker to come let me in, but as I did so someone came out of the elevator and walked towards our door. I hung up and politely waited for her to open the door. I explained that I was locked out and calling to get in but now I can just tag along with her. She smiled and seemed very obliging. I went back to work and thought nothing more of it.

An hour later an email came in to all tenants reporting the sighting of an ‘unidentified person lurking on one of the floors’. The note advised that we keep an eye on who is in our suites and to lock up all valuables. The incident with my key-card had long since left my mind, so I was actually taken aback by the email. I asked my cube-mate Eric if he got the email, and he told me that this sort of thing is rather common, and that he had known of people being robbed in the past in a similar fashion. The whole thing shocked me to be honest, and the use of ‘lurking’ on the email made me picture an evil man in a trench coat luring children into abandoned offices with candy. Then it dawned on me… what if I am the lurking creep? I had never seen the woman who let me into the office before, and while she seems obliging she might have just been polite to cover up her worries that I was some sort of evil-doer… There wasn’t any other instance reported during the rest of the week, so either the lurker moved on, or he’s still in hiding. Possibly behind the water cooler. Waiting for the perfect time to strike!...Or its just me and I need to lose the trench coat if I ever want to be accepted in the workplace.

The American Interview Post

Yesterday I took the day off work to head in for my Citizenship Interview. The penultimate step on my application for US citizenship. All that’s left now, after passing the exam is for me to swear the Oath of Allegiance, at which point I will complete the whole process and have citizenship. The swearing in will happen within a month or so, according to the officer who did my interview. The interview consists of three parts; a background check under oath, a reading/writing assessment and a short civics quiz. I had been preparing for the civics portion with Sarah for a while leading up to the interview so I was well prepared and knew the material rather well. I’m really glad to have the process all but completed and look forward to receiving notification as to when I can go in and take the oath. There will be an All-American Themed Party to celebrate shortly following the event. Stay tuned.

The Cubicle Shuffle Post

This week has been a bit of a crazy one at the office due to department shuffling. The company has been expanding staff rather rapidly over the past few months (my hiring included) and needed to increase the office space we occupy in our current building. In addition to filling up the 5th and most of the 8th floor we have now expanded to the 7th, and Marketing and Sales have been bumped to the new space. This is of particular note for me because I am finally in the same workspace as my department. Previously I was on the 5th and they where on the 8th. I now share a divided cube with Eric our events manager. It’s a fair bit bigger than my previous space and has a window which is always nice. View’s not bad from up there either. I won’t lie, I have walked up to my empty cube on the 5th a few times out of habit.