My job consists of an awful lot of
sitting in an office
thinking. Since I'm
no
Ed Witten, I don't have
my own office;
I share with two others.
One of these officemates is
an enigma. He is very
sensitive to noise: he wears earplugs and
the slightest odd noise disturbs him.
I find it ironic that this bundle of nerves
emits all sorts of angry sounds, for a wide
variety of reasons.
Extraneous noises outside make him glare
and snarl, the computer makes him curse,
and writer's block makes him throw down him
pen and huff. Just now he invoked the name
of the Lord because some custodian 4 buildings
away dropped a mop handle.
So, as I write this, I am clacking away on the computer
as loudly as possible. I drank a can of Coke
extra fast so as to induce massive burping.
Oops, I just kicked my metal desk "by accident".
Hmm, that's an interesting sound I can make with
my finger in my ear. Where did I put that
juicy chewing gum?
Hopefully he will go home before the pulsing
blood vessel in his forehead bursts. Really,
I don't care.