Ssshhh

I work in a cubicle. Many people work in cubicles. I’m nobody special. I’m not complaining. It’s a big cubicle. If I crane my neck the right way I can see out the window at the immaculate vista of downtown and east Los Angeles. But it’s a cubicle. And there’s another person on the other side of my faux wall. And this other person likes to talk on the phone. A lot. Most office workers don’t talk on the phone a lot, not like back in the pre-e-mail days. But this one does. This young Ph.D.-educated research scientist likes to talk on the phone a lot about things like…. and I have to be coy here …. Things like event planning. And Catholicism. And the difficulties of relationships. And event planning.

It’s not really the phone conversations to which I’m drawing attention. Nor is it the preposterous volume that this Pac 10-research university-educated research scientist chooses to reach during the conversation. No, it’s the fact that this person with more seniority than I chooses to combine loud phone conversations with lunch – i.e., talking (loud, for long periods of time) with his/her mouth full. It almost makes me regret incorrectly predicting this person’s graduate alma mater to win the college basketball championship last week. But, like I said, I’m nobody special.

Since we’re on the subject of lunch, I enjoyed mine today at Skew’s Beyond Teriyaki. I just wanted to get that name out to the world: Skew’s Beyond Teriyaki. I’m very happy that someone went beyond teriyaki. It was time.

This person is still talking. Her/his lunch is finally over, thank God. I’ve got my headphones on. I’ve got the volume on my government-issued laptop on LOUD. And I can still hear every word this person (whose first initial is the same as his/her last initial, at least until the wedding) says.

So I will breathe deeply. I will fill the big room with love. I will chase that elusive position in academia. I will continue writing the screenplay. I will breathe deeply.

The screenplay, a short update: We’ve got out Maverick. We’ve got our Ice Man. We’ve got our Walk on the Beach.