Beam Me Up

Every Wednesday is breakfast day at work. So, today was breakfast day.

That means that once a week, we have a great breakfast lovingly cooked by my amazing mother. I am not sure there is a better way to start a work day than have your mom pop her head into your office and say, “Your pancakes are ready.” What? Is this my life?! I have no idea if anyone else in the world pays their mom to cook breakfast but we all love it and she loves it.

There is an awful lot that can happen when nerds get around a conference table and eat toast and eggs together for fifteen minutes. For example, we ponder what is happening in the world, like whether it might be a holiday. With a few dozen million computers and an equal number of smart phones in the office, still none of us knew for sure if it was really Groundhog’s Day.  Untethered briefly and hindered by eating, it was a bit of a throwback to like, ten years ago when you just talked about things without resolution, without someone starting off with, "Just a sec... wait... oh yeah... yep... here we go, it says here that Groundhog's Day in ancient Rome was actually Ground Log's Day, or in Latin..."

And so it goes.

Other topics... there was a deploy tonight so there was also a lot of chatter about computers. All of our computers have human names. The computer in my office is George and he is so cute and small and friendly. We are very attached to each other.

This naming convention is taken quite seriously by our staff. It is a bit like the hurricane system where you start with A and work your way through to Z, alternating genders or something like that. I can't figure it all out but it seems the computers have more interesting lives than I do. Overheard at breakfast: Are Brian and Andrew talking to each other? Things don't go well if they aren't connected. What about Frank? Is Frank ready to go? We really need all three of them talking to each other before tonight.

Dr. Who, meet Dr. Phil.

We're in a very classic English lit phase right now with our generic males names: Stephen, Andrew, Richard, etc. Things weren't always that way. Years ago, there was a very strong Middle Earth/Sci-fi vibe going on. Gandalf is doing fine but Picard needs a lot of help, a LOT of help. And don't you think Bilbo needs an upgrade? We should switch out Worf with Eldrond so everyone is on the same platform. Honestly, I wish Kirk was still here.

Most recently, we have added Irene and apparently she is very fast and very good. This has added a whole new dimension to the conversations and I have informed staff we need to keep breakfasts strictly G-rated, what with my mom standing by making pancakes.

Honestly, we’re all just crazy busy and our hair is on fire right now. Breakfast, together at work, seems like a way to bring a normal part of daily living into our twirling, swirling world. And we get to catch up on whether Frank has the hots for Irene and what they were doing in the server room. Ooops! Sorry Mom. Forget Downton Abbey… bring on Maplewood Heights anytime.