8.04.2010

Line of the Day: That's what she said.

I was recently moved to a new position at my firm.  It was a lateral move, and I was kind of equally thrilled and bummed out at the change.  I was happy to get out of a situation that was not working at ALL, but sad to leave my friends on the 13th floor for my new spot on 11 (known to those on 13 as "the dungeon").

Turns out, I really like the 11th floor.  It is not nearly the dark and loathsome place I imagined it to be.  There are lots more people down there, most of whom are younger attorneys - overworked and underpaid, just about my own age, sleep-deprived from night after long night at the office spent busting their asses in the hopes of eventually making partner.  My inclination would be to assume they're miserable, but they are surprisingly fun, funny, and playful folks.  Perhaps because the office has begun to feel like home, they find opportunities in between drafting giant briefs, rushing to meet deadlines and putting out daily fires to take their shoes off, toss a ball around, pull pranks on each other, crack jokes and eat copious amounts of fun-size candy.  I have a hard time fathoming this reality, and thank my lucky stars every day that I decided against going to law school.

But anyway, here I am, on the funky 11th floor where the general sense of irreverance is a welcome change from the norm in this oft-bristly, buttoned-up town.  The line of the day comes from my cube-neighbor, a 50-something-ish woman who routinely delivers sexually ambiguous one-liners, talks louder than anyone I've ever met, and once, when my boss, Tim, asked her if his occasional foul-language offended her, replied, "Oh sweetie, I used to be the madam at a titty bar - nothing offends me!"

This afternoon, Tim comes out of his office to get something off of this woman's printer.  Whatever he printed wasn't there waiting for him though, and he started fooling with the buttons and asking what was up.  A short conversation ensued between the two of them as they tried to figure out the source of the problem.  Now, I wasn't completely tuned-in to the dialogue, but something was said about the paper trays, and apparently, the bottom tray was out of paper.  Tim was attempting to load more paper in there, but screwing it up somehow.  At which point, Karen delivers today's line of the day:

Well honey, when my bottom's empty, you just need to shove it in harder.