I hate it when they leave me in the office alone.
The boss had to go pick up fliers across the border (advertising money - so I won't complain about why he's gone) and Micheline went for lunch so here I am in the office, by myself.
I'm here because I didn't want to stick around my room because the mother hen is making me crazy. She doesn't know how to start a conversation, and I don't want to talk to her anyway. She fed me olives and orange juice. I feel nauseous. And she'll think I don't like olives or something now. Just like how she thinks I don't like lettuce because I don't eat the tough part of the stalk and I don't like beans because I don't want to eat her overcooked ones. Okay, that one might be legitimate. I do like beans though normally.
Finally, the guy from the Union des Producteurs Agricoles calls me back. What happens? Five people come into the office and interupt the flow of the interview. The guy speaks technical French and I'm having a hard time getting exactly to what he's talking about anyway and the people coming in and out and looking at me like,"WAIT ON ME NOW!" aren't helping.
I want to put up a sign that says, "I'm a reporter, really, and I didn't know this would be part of the job when I came here and I've been trained on the fly by the seat of my pants."
It would go well with my "Warning, air conditioner+microwave=computer crash" sign.
And then I take a classified and the guy has to point out to me where we keep our copies of past ads so I can see how far he is paid up. Shit. I feel like a complete idiot, and it doesn't help when I say I'm a reporter and not the office staff. It's not that I'm too good to be the office staff. No, I'm just not cut out for being office staff - dealing with money (not my forte), filing (also not my forte since my idea of a filing system is backwards to everyone else's), and writing legibily (I use shorthand all the time now, and I forget that other people don't understand).
So that is my suffering for the afternoon. Really, though, the interview was okay and I got something I can use. It's a good thing. My story can actually run this week. Phew. Last week there wasn't space so we decided to hold off for the guy on vacation.
Too bad he spoke such technical French.
Another week gone.
I'm off to the city this weekend with Matt. He and I are on a mission, but I'll explain next week. Plus, I want to get some shopping done and buy candy in Chinatown. Those jelly cups with the coconut that I had at Laurie's. They were yummy and too cool not to bring back to everyone at school.
© lily keller 2001
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