The Work Family

I have two families: My perfect little family at home, and my super-dysfunctional family at work. And I love them both. We have quite the family dynamic at work...each playing our own little rolls in our work lives. We spend more than 1/3 of every day together, we may as well have fun with it.

 First we have our Grandma. This is ironic because she's the youngest of the crowd, but she's an old soul at heart. She comes to work with her crafty ideas, her old-fashioned language, and her crochet hooks. Some of the phrases that come out of her mouth are things we have barely heard our own grandparents say.

Second, we have Mama. I started calling her my "Work Mama" because she nearly worried herself sick about me when I was pregnant. I was never really sick, but she was always concerned about how much I was eating, sleeping, walking, working, etc. She is the calmest of the group and the one we go to for wisdom and advice. If she doesn't have good advice, she's always quick with a good one-liner to make us laugh. Sometimes, that's all we need.

We have the foreign exchange student. We try to get past her "spanglish" as I like to call it, and really understand what she's saying, but sometimes we just giggle and sigh knowing we'll never know what was really said. She goes on many cruises and vacations and comes back telling us of her adventures. We often joke saying her brain stayed at sea when she came home, but it always returns a few days later. She keeps us entertained during our long stretches of insanity and boredom.

Then there's me, the high-strung teenager. I have more energy than most people are used to, and this has gotten me a reputation of being very loud and hyperactive. I'm okay with this. I'd rather be hyperactive and happy, than quiet and boring. I try to keep everyone laughing and on their toes. They might be laughing at me most of the time, but it's still laughter, so I enjoy it.

Today I am the official "geriatric cruise director" at work. All of the young people are gone and I'm the youngest one here by 30 years!!! Whoever gets stuck working alone with the old people is automatically the cruise director...complete with clipboard and whistle. I've kept the whistling to myself today....I just don't have the energy.