Musings at the Office: Part Three, or, My Great Paper Clip Adventure

I'm bringing my laptop to work again.  It turns out that the BU IT Help Center had no faith in my Fernando, as he's been doing quite well since the time they told me that my screen was dead and I should just get a new computer.  

This makes me so happy.  It isn't that I haven't enjoyed bringing books to work, but sometimes it gets a little dull reading the same thing for eight hours.  For this reason, I've had to make my own fun.  And thus began the great paper clip adventure.

There are three common paper-clip repositories in my office:  the reception desk, the fax/mail station, and the copy room.  People have their own paper clip cups at their desk as well, but those aren't for public usage, of course.  What usually happens in the office, however, is that a fax will come in, and I'll paper clip the pages together and put the packet in the person's box.  That person will then take the packet, and put that paper clip into their personal paper clip container.  This was working fine until we ran out of common property paper clips.  

Frugal as I am with corporate funds, I wasn't going to go off and purchase more paper clips!  They haven't been thrown away, just redistributed and scattered throughout the office!  I had found my personal mission:  I would reclaim these paper clips and return them to their rightful places, a gathering, if you will.  I would start sneaking around and pilfering paper clips from the desks of people who seemed to have entirely too many for their own good, but then I started searching for them.  I searched behind the copy machines, under the desks, attached to old documents in the scrap paper bin.  I finally felt like I had some great purpose in the office besides answering the phones, making the coffee, and making sure the candy dish was stocked with everyone's favorites. 

Then, a few days ago, as I was trying to figure out where some phone lines led, I hit a gold mine behind an abandoned cubicle.  I can only imagine what happened was that the previous occupant knocked over his or her paper clip cup and they all fell behind the desk, leaving dozens of paper clips amidst a tangled, dusty maze of phone and ethernet cords.  It was among the happiest of moments.

I believe that was the zenith of my obsession, but who knows, maybe I'll turn out like Bert: