I've Got a Lot to Learn

You learn something new every day.

To paraphrase a line from one of my least favorite monthly features at my old employer, here is what I learned:

1. How to spell my sister’s fiance’s first name -– she wrote it in an e-mail to me for the first time, and I realized I’d been mentally spelling it wrong for the past seven months (aka the entire seven months she has known him).

2. That the squat ugly thing on which my TV stands (and on which I usually pile books, my coat, magazines, etc.) has a purpose in life. A door lifts up, a la a garage door, and voila -- it's a filing cabinet. Have I mentioned I have worked in this office for 2 ½ years? But hey, I’m on the road a lot. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

3. From a random whois search, that my employer is the owner of a humor web site I would have sworn belonged to a couple of cheeky geeks.

4. That we may just have the dumbest intern on the planet. Because I’m the only other American in the bureau, she comes into my office frequently to get me to “translate.” After three days of being asked by various staffers about the post (translation: mail), she still couldn’t figure it out and asked me: “Have you seen the New York Post?” And today I got a description of a party from her that misidentified the venue (the name of the place is in foot-high letters when you enter) and described one polka-dot dress as poke-o dot. Never mind that she described the party theme as 1940s when all the women were dressed as flappers.